The Bartók World Competition at the Liszt Academy begins

On Sunday evening, 31 August, the youngest entrant, fifteen-year-old Chinese Michael Jiang, drew the number of the contestant who will be the first to perform, according to the tradition of the institution's competitions. It will be Anastasiia Kliuchereva from Russia, who will be followed in alphabetical order, which will remain in effect throughout the competition. The competitors will include Japanese, Hungarian, Chinese, Korean, Czech, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian and German nationals.

The Bartók World Competition is open to the general public: from 1 to 4 September, admission to the preliminaries and semi-finals is free of charge, while tickets for the solo and orchestral finals on 5 September and 7 September are available at a convenient price on the Liszt Academy website and at its ticket office. The latter event will feature the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by János Kovács.

The competition, supported by the Hungarian state, has Mr. Tamás Sulyok, President of Hungary as chief patron, while Prof. Dr. Balázs Hankó, Minister for Culture and Innovation as well as Mr. Tamás Vásáry, renowned pianist and conductor are its patrons.

The event will award €22,000 for first prize, €14,000 for second and €8,000 for third, plus €4,000 for the best Bartók interpretation, €2,000 for the best performance of a contemporary piece and a €1,500 audience prize. A number of special prizes will also be awarded thanks to the donations of the partners, including media packages from the cultural websites and magazines Papageno and Fidelio, as well as performance opportunities from Philharmonia Hungary, the Bartók Memorial House, Müpa Budapest and a number of orchestras such as the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Danubia Orchestra, the MÁV Symphony Orchestra and several regional ensembles.

As a sponsor of the competition and as part of a long-standing cooperation, Yamaha Corporation, the brand owner, has donated a Bösendorfer 280VC concert grand piano to the Liszt Academy for 2 years of use, worth tens of millions of forints, freshly made in Vienna. It will be one of the optional instruments in the Grand Hall, so that it can be played by students as well as artists performing here in the coming period.

The Vice-President and Head of Department of the Liszt Academy, composer Gyula Fekete, one of the Hungarian members of the international jury, welcomed the audience on behalf of the institution, stressing that he is the only non-pianist member of the jury and will therefore be watching the performances from a different perspective. He quoted Beethoven, who said that playing a wrong note is insignificant, but playing without passion is inexcusable. Reflecting on this, Gyula Fekete encouraged everyone to interpret works with true passion.

Yoheved Kaplinsky, President of the Jury, Head of the Piano Department and Artistic Director of the Preparatory Piano Department at The Juilliard School (New York), said in her speech that it is always a wonderful feeling to be in Budapest, a city with a rich culture and character. Speaking about the Bartók World Competition, she said that its structure and compulsory repertoire makes it unique among similar events. She also urged the competitors to play with sincerity and passion, and to enjoy their performances.

The prestigious international panel includes distinguished pianists from the world's music scene, renowned orchestras and concert hall guests: alongside Kaplinsky, there is Turkish-American Özgür Aydin, Ukrainian-German Pavel Gililov, who is the founding artistic director of the Telekom Beethoven Competition in Bonn, and Chinese Zhe Tang, Professor and Deputy Dean of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. The jury will also include internationally renowned Hungarian personalities. Dr. Gábor Farkas, Liszt Prize-winning pianist, Rector of the Liszt Academy and Head of the Keyboard Department, Gyula Fekete, Erkel Prize-winning composer, Vice-Rector of the Liszt Academy, and Dezső Ránki, two-time Kossuth Prize-winning pianist and Artist of the Nation.

Fotó: Valuska Gábor / Zeneakadémia

The compulsory repertoire focuses on Bartók's most important works for piano, which are included in all rounds, but the contestants will also have to demonstrate their skills by playing works by Liszt, Kodály, Dohnányi, Scarlatti, Ravel, Debussy, Scriabin, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. A special feature of the Bartók Competition is the inclusion of the prize-winning works of the composition competition in the compulsory repertoire of the instrumentalists, including two pieces from the 2024 round of the composition competition: the Vertigineux (Vertiginous) by Lee Hanuri and the Kirakós (The Jigsaw) by Mátyás Papp.

This year's competition attracted 55 young talents from 19 countries, including Japan, South Korea, China, the United States, Canada and several European countries, which is a good number considering the difficulty of the repertoire, which featues a number of infrequently performed pieces. As a related event, the Central European Music History Research Group of the Musicology Department of the Academy of Music is organising its second international conference.

More information can be found on the bartokworldcompetition.hu portal.

The Liszt Academy's Bartók World Competition, which is also a member of the prestigious World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC), was launched in 2017 and is unique in its special structure. It takes place in six-year cycles, building on the most characteristic elements of Bartók's oeuvre: piano, violin, chamber music and composition. The individual instrumental competitions are held in odd-numbered years, with a composition competition in the intermediate, even-numbered years, always linked to the next instrumental category. This exceptional structure is both a way of drawing the attention of the best instrumentalists of the rising generation of musicians to Bartók's works and of inspiring young composers to create new works in the spirit of Bartók.