Petra Kiss visits China

In summer last year, my phone rang. They were calling from the Liszt Academy, would I play some pieces by Liszt to a Chinese delegation two days later? I accepted. Next day they rang up again, saying I'd have to play in two hours' time. I accepted this too. I arrived, they were very kind and because of the fatigue of the delegation and the heat, asked that I play for just fifteen minutes. But the audience demanded more and more encores until three quarters of an hour had passed. I began to suspect that this was a rather knowledgable audience.

After the concert, I was introduced to Mr Chen Ping, the director of the Beijing cultural centre, the NCPA (National Centre for the Performing Arts.) He personally asked for my email address because he said he would like to organise a concert for the following summer. A few weeks later, they did indeed contact me, insisting that I play a Liszt programme as well as a piano concerto with orchestra. We agreed everything, I submitted the material for the two evening recitals and decided with the conductor in China to play the Liszt Piano Concerto in E flat major (the orchestra of the Chinese National Ballet had learned a Hungarian programme for this concert.) Five days before setting off, a new email arrived in which they said they'd like me to play works by other composers in my very first concert, and so I had to assemble a quite new programme.

I stayed in a luxury hotel, a chauffeur took me everywhere. I was given a piano practise room to which I could go whenever I wanted. I gave the first concert for tourists and I had to speak about the works in English which was then translated into Chinese by an interpretor.

The second concert, a large evening recital, was the greatest experience for me. The Hungarian Consulate organised the audience, they only invited guests who understood music and had previously lived for years in Hungary. It was a great feeling to play for them: throughout I sensed a rapt attention in the hall and at the end of the concert, there was a standing ovation and they truly demanded encores. Then after the concert, a huge snaking queue formed before me as they waited for my autograph. Over a hundred pictures were taken of me with audience members.

We gave the final concert in a large concert hall with a capacity of 1900. At the orchestral rehearsal the orchestra and conductor Zhang Yi were most cooperative. All tickets for the concert were sold: it was a full house. There were many rewards for me from this tour, different Hungarian and German orchestras and conductors sent me invitations for the 2013/14 season.

I think I owe the Liszt Academy a huge debt of gratitude for that phone call last summer!