Liszt marathon – Liszt’s piano concerts
With János Balázs and the Zalaegerszeg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ferenc Bognár
Programme: Liszt: Piano Concert in E flat major, Liszt: Piano Concert in A major, Liszt: Dance of Death, Liszt: Hungarian Fantasy
This unusual concert will feature popular piano concerts by Ferenc Liszt, including the Piano Concerts in E flat major and A major, the Death Dance and the Hungarian Fantasy, as well as the Piano Concert in E flat major and A major. The four works almost trace the whole of Liszt’s oeuvre, as the composer put the first sketches for a concert in E flat major to paper in 1830 when he was still very young, but the development was still to come, and nine years later he was already working on a concert in A major. Earlier than the two piano concerts, in the literal sense of the word, in 1853, the Hungarian Fantasy, which was set to popular folk melodies and verbunk tunes played by gypsy musicians, and the Dance of Death, which set to music the memory of a journey to Pisa, were also performed. Liszt was never satisfied and regularly reworked his works, including several versions of the Piano Concerts in E flat major and A major, which were only finally released to the public more than twenty years later.
(Co-organised by the Cziffra Festival and the Keresztury Dezső Municipal Cultural Centre)