“Unquestionable heritage” – conference on Bartók and the piano

In his opening address, Dr Pál Richter, Director of the Institute for Musicology, said that the symposium was intended to draw the attention of an international audience, and in particular young musicologists, to Bartók’s work and significance. He remarked that the relationship between Bartók and the piano was a complex issue which the conference would discuss along with his equally complex output as a composer, introducing a number of recent research projects.

Photo: Liszt Academy/János Posztós

Dr Andrea Vigh, Rector of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, noted in her opening address that Bartók was a wide-ranging and multifaceted talent and that it would be unfair to say that composing music and researching folk music had distanced him from virtuoso piano playing even though he had cut the number of his appearances for a certain period. “The symbiosis of these three activities is truly admirable. No other composer, performer or researcher would have been capable of it,” she said. She underlined that the significance of Bartók’s heritage is unquestionable as only the chosen few, God’s favourites, that is, geniuses, possess the gift of accomplishing everything he did with such integrity and purity. She added that the Bartók World Competition was intended to motivate researchers to aid international audiences in understanding Bartók’s music. “The high standard of this year’s piano competition demonstrates that young artists understand and play Bartók really well, so it was well worth establishing this competition, which shows that Bartók is well loved and respected by the world.” In conclusion, Dr Vigh noted “when there are new research findings about one of Bartók’s pieces, we performers become very curious because we hope to grow ever closer to his music and his message to later generations.”

Photo: Liszt Academy/János Posztós

 

 

In his keynote speech, Dr László Vikárius, head of the Bartók Archives, recalled Bartók’s first encounter with music: according to his mother, when her son was one and a half years old, she would play dances on the piano for him and he was already able to recognize a piece to his liking. Dr Vikárius also gave an account of Bartók’s musical studies up to his graduation from the Academy of Music, noting that from his official debut in 1903 to 1911, he worked as a concert pianist, but he changed his mind later: he was quoted as saying that he had realized he did not have the peace of mind and physical strength required for such a career, so he chose to become a lecturer at the Academy of Music instead. Meanwhile, he was active as a folk music collector, and he again returned to concert performances after World War I. Dr Vikárius quoted Kodály, who wrote in a 1922 concert review that as a performer of contemporary music Bartók was always in search of novelty and that he was laying ever greater emphasis on composition. The expert noted that the range of his piano pieces is very broad and varied, which makes him unique among the great figures of 20th-century modernism. He concluded by expressing his hope that the full-day symposium would be a contribution to research on Bartók’s oeuvre.

Photo: Liszt Academy/János Posztós

 

The symposium featured talks by noted Hungarian and international researchers, while recently graduated doctors, doctoral students in music and musicology, and Hungarian, Slovak, Spanish and American music historians and pianists presented papers on a wide variety of topics ranging from Bartók’s pieces for solo piano as well as his piano concertos to concerto adaptations from other composers’ works and classical masterpieces. A presentation of this year’s first volume of the critical complete edition of Bartók’s oeuvre was also part of the programme.