Liszt Academy commemorative season reaches its high point

The inaugural academic year of the Liszt Academy began on 14 November 1875; this moment also marked the start of a remarkable history that fulfilled (and made world famous) Hungarian music culture through the leading professors and hugely gifted students that   passed through the Art Nouveau building on Liszt Ferenc Square. The duality of world-standard teaching and concert life: this is the Liszt heritage, in the spirit of which the Liszt Academy currently celebrating the anniversary of its foundation operates, and which also places the 2015/16 commemorative season in a refractive prism. The 15 November concert of the Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra pays tribute to the establishment of the institution 140 years ago; their performance includes one work each by four of the academy’s most influential teachers, Liszt, Bartók, Dohnányi and Kodály. The series of performances entitled Liszt Academy of Yesterday hosted by music historians András Batta and Sándor Kovács recently reached its half-way stage, while the Legendary Concerts season ticket series starts with the appearance of Gergely Bogányi and the Keller Quartet; it replays the programmes of five moving concerts of historical significance. The totally unique history of the Liszt Academy, the metamorphosis of its buildings and the recent past of the institution are outlined in the photo exhibition Liszt Academy – 140 years of music that can be viewed (free of charge) in the Atrium next to the Sir Georg Solti Chamber Hall. In keeping with its university status, the international institution founded by Erkel and Liszt is also active in the area of science. A remarkable volume From Sequences to Symphonies – studies in honour of the 140-year-old Liszt Academy of Liszt, Bartók and Ligeti published on this anniversary represents the research portfolio of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. “As well as nurturing and preserving traditions, we should not lose sight of the fact that Liszt was a citizen of the world with a capacity to constantly renew. We have always espoused this openness and we will take it with us into 2016,” said Dr. Andrea Vigh, speaking at the 12 November 2015 press conference arranged on the anniversary of the Academy.

Liszt Academy 140 – Press conference (Photo: István Fazekas/Liszt Academy)

Following the speech by the president of the Liszt Academy, the facade floodlighting – one of the final elements of the reconstruction project – was formally switched on. From now on, each evening the main facade looking on to Liszt Ferenc Square will be bathed in light from floodlights employing the very latest lighting technologies. The inauguration of the illumination was made all the more memorable by students of the Brass Department who performed parts from Béla Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle under the guidance of Gusztáv Hőna, professor of trombone. “There is an irresolvable contradiction between Bartók on the surface and Bartók on the interior. Here is a grey-haired, little bespectacled professor wearing a hat, carrying a briefcase who, when he plays piano, is akin to an erupting volcano.” These words of Zoltán Kocsis were quoted by Imre Szabó Stein, who drew a parallel between the persona of Bartók and the essence of the institution celebrating its 140th birthday. “The duality straining between tradition and innovation provides the grounds for our work because the Liszt Academy has to be present in several force fields at one time. I feel it is highly symbolic that in the last few days – as though crowning a jubilee season – we were awarded two extremely important communications prizes. Whereas the Red Dot Design Award is the powerful reaction of international public opinion to the somewhat provocative image clip of the Concert Centre, the Mediadesign gold medal is the counterpoint to this, that is, domestic recognition of the 140 Campaign focusing on the traditional values of the Liszt Academy and featuring the principal facade created out of notes on sheet music paper. For a moment, this places home and abroad, patina and progress, in perfect balance,” the communications director said. Imre Szabó Stein then presented the latest edition of the Liszt Academy Concert Magazine timed for the November anniversary. This sixth edition of the magazine gives a detailed introduction to the January-June 2016 concerts and examines the period since the reopening of the Liszt Academy in 2013 (this publication is available free of charge in the Liszt Academy box office and main Libri bookshops). “Aside from the Liszt Academy, there are barely any other institutions in the world in which university and concert centre work together in such close unity. This centaurian-like dual existence – that can be traced in the symbolism of the building – is reflected in the cover and themes of the new magazine,” said Imre Szabó Stein, editor in chief of the publication, when speaking in Liszt Ferenc Square.

Liszt Academy 140 – Press conference (Photo: István Fazekas/Liszt Academy)

Cultural director András Csonka outlined the spring programmes that can be seen in the Concert Magazine available free of charge from the Liszt Academy box office and in main Libri bookshops, as well as on the Liszt Academy website. Upcoming programmes are hallmarked by the likes of Joshua Bell, Sol Gabetta, the Emerson String Quartet, Boris Berman, Maria João Pires, Gustav Rivinius, Gautier Capuçon, Claudio Bohórquez, Tanja Becker-Bender, Christian Gerhaher and the Freiburger Barockorchester, Andrei Baranov, Wiener Sängerknaben; as well as home-grown stars such as Kristóf Baráti, Gábor Boldoczki, Klára Csordás, László Fenyő, András Keller, Miklós Perényi, István Várdai and Dénes Várjon. The unmissable cornerstone of the spring programme is the concert on 19 February with Concerto Budapest that pays tribute to the 90-year-old György Kurtág, former student of the Liszt Academy and one of the greatest living composers of the 20th century. Within the framework of the 2016 Bartók Year, in February Dénes Várjon, Izabella Simon and Concerto Budapest replay the programme of the emotional 1940 farewell concert by Béla Bartók and Ditta Pásztory (piano concertos by Bach and Mozart and excerpts from Microcosmos). Later on the Emerson Quartet perform Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4, and the youthful gifted violinist of the Liszt Academy Oszkár Varga tackles Rhapsody No. 1. Frank Peter Zimmermann and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester give a recital of Music for Stringed Instruments, Percussion and Celesta, Village Scenes is heard in the song recital by Andrea Meláth and Kálmán Dráfi, while Gergely Ménesi and the Symphony Orchestra of the Liszt Academy play Rhapsody, opus 1. The Concert Centre’s spring 2016 jazz programme is just as strong as the classical music offering: among the giants of the genre the Liszt Academy welcomes Dave Douglas and Uri Caine, and the evening of 20 May promises to be a similar red letter day when Charles Lloyd and Jason Moran play in Budapest. The cream of Hungarian jazz – Károly Binder and Kálmán Oláh, the Sárik Péter Trio, and Bille Gergő Quintet – step up to the mark in the Jazz It! series. As part of the folk music concerts gathered under the title Acoustic, Authentic we can enjoy the skills of the Eszterlánc Ensemble and Mihály Dresch, Buda Folk Band, Miklós Lukács, and Mentés Másként Trio.

Liszt Academy 140 – Press conference (Photo: István Fazekas/Liszt Academy)

“One of the cardinal points when it came to editing the Liszt Academy programmes was providing our audiences with a constant stream of themed series,” said Csonka András when unveiling the eight new season ticket programmes for 2016. Sol Gabetta, Joshua Bell and Kristóf Baráti will be guests of the Liszt Academy in the Chamber Music for the Grand Hall season ticket series; Anne Sofie von Otter, Julia Lezhneva and Anna Prohaska in our new Baroque Sopranos series; and the Emerson String Quartet and Berlin Philharmonia Quartet in the Four Times Four series for season ticket holders. The Symphony Orchestra of the Liszt Academy will be conducted by Ádám Medveczky and Gábor Takács-Nagy, while our series Here and Now has Piia Komsi and Péter Nagy, Amadinda percussion ensemble and Judit Rajk in leading roles. The Génie oblige! season ticket series showcasing rising stars features Oszkár Varga, Eszter Karasszon and Tamás Pálfalvi; The Colours of Black and White has Balázs Szokolay, József Balog and Gábor Farkas, and there is another series of concerts for 10-15-year-olds at the Liszt Kidz Academy, the cultural director noted. “The new Liszt Academy Concert Centre season tickets represent a significant, 20% saving compared to ticket prices for individual concerts; they can be bought latest by the date of the first concert in the series. We are also giving a special Christmas discount of 15% on new season tickets purchased in 2015. Solo tickets for concerts falling into the new season ticket series are available after the introductory period, from 1 December 2015,” said András Csonka, who added: “In addition to the eight new series, our five season ticket series advertised in spring are still available. Anyone can select from our redesigned à la carte season ticket Liszt Academy 140 – As you like it offering graded discounts (while stocks last). They are available in our box office on Liszt Ferenc Square, where the Liszt Academy Gift Card is also back on sale.”

For full information on the new season tickets available from 13 November 2015 and detailed concert programmes, please go to zeneakademia.hu/berletek on the Liszt Academy website, or flick through the 2016 pages in the programme calendar.