THE SACRED MUSIC OF LISZT

Some people are born with personalities which immediately make them attractive and likeable to those around them. István Lantos (born 1949) is such a man. Already at the age of four he played the organ at the Bosnyák Square church in Budapest. It appeared as a matter of course that his future lay with music: when he was at music school, his teachers, Mrs Lajos Bólya (piano) and József Kárpáti (organ) further reinforced this idea. It became quite unequivocal when he moved from the Gábor Egressy secondary school to the conservatory, where he was taught by Ferenc Gergely (organ) and Erzsébet Tusa (piano). He entered the Music Academy in 1968, studied with Péter Solymos, and gained his diploma in 1972. The National Philharmonic immediately engaged him as a soloist, and retained him as such till 1992, when this type of contract ceased to exist. He began work as a teacher in November 1973, first substituting for his erstwhile professor who was teaching abroad, but soon "in his own right", and gradually advancing up the academic ladder. On 1 January 1984 he was appointed head of department, and in 1993 gained the title of university professor. In the meantime, from October 1986 he spent three years teaching in Japan (Sapporo, Teacher Training University). When in March 1994 he applied for the post of rector of the Liszt Academy, in his draft programme he emphasized the importance of settling issues of human relations within the establishment. He had faith that all problems could be solved if the relationships were in order, if the values and energies mutually strengthened, rather than blocked out each other. He held the post of rector from 1994 till 1997, and then became head of the piano department and of the master-training course.

His career as a performer began while he was still at college, when in 1969 he played Bartók's Third Piano Concerto at the International Youth Festival in Bayreuth. This was followed by Messiaen's Oiseaux exotiques, conducted by Pierre Boulez in Bayreuth in 1970. From 1972 till János Ferencsik's death he regularly toured with the State Concert Orchestra (Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and then, in 1976, came the first tour of Japan). That his soloist career did not bring even more spectacular successes can be explained in part by the fact that his whole generation was pushed somewhat into the background when unexpectedly even younger pianists, Zoltán Kocsis and Dezső Ránki, burst into the limelight. Nonetheless, even in the "shade", he had a full career, recognized with prizes and awards: in 1976 he received the Liszt Prize, in 1991 the prize of the Cziffra Foundation, and thereafter the highest professional recognition, the Béla Bartók-Ditta Pásztory Prize in 1992, and the title, Meritotious Artist, in 1998. Both Hungarian Radio and the National Philharmonic awarded him prizes on several occasions.

Not only at the beginning of his career, but even as a recognized artist, Lantos has always been willing to undertake tasks which involve some inconvenience. He performed in youth concerts of a popularising nature (often playing pieces for four hands with Erzsébet Tusa). He regarded it as part of his pedagogical mission to participate in Hungarian Radio's youth programmes, and was happy to undertake so-called chat-concerts, with a popularising-analysing content. Lantos often holds courses abroad (Italy, Denmark, Finland, Japan) and frequently participates in the panels of international piano competitions. It is not rare that foreign students insist on having him when they apply to enter the Liszt Academy. István Lantos is among those who regard the careers of performer and teacher as belonging together, complementing each other. He utilises the experiences of his concert tours and radio recordings in his pedagogical work, and the results of learning while teaching in his practice as a performer. He has succeeded, by now for several decades, in maintaining good relations with his older colleagues and the younger generations alike. Through the effect of his personality, he has succeeded in directing many people's attention to the values of musical history, and in evoking and stimulating interest in the traditions and the preservation of the roots. He is rightly a model for his pupils: he provides an example of the worth of the appreciation of musical values and of passing them on by way of understanding interpretation.

The legendary piano professor, former president and chair of Piano Department, István Lantos will hold a lecture around the thematic of the sacred music of Liszt. His lecture will be supported by sound-tracks and his own live piano playing.