János Balázs & Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra
TICKETS

Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 3
Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 2, BB 101
Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73

János Balázs (piano)
Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Gábor Takács-Nagy

1956 was a defining year both in terms of the history of Hungary and the life of György Cziffra. It saw the staging of a passionate and enormously successful concert, which linked the fate of the artist and his nation in a remarkable way. On 22 October, Cziffra (who had just been awarded the Liszt Prize) performed – in the company of the State Concert Orchestra under the baton of Mario Rossi – Bartók’s long banned/ignored second piano concerto. It proved to be a production just as liberating in rediscovering our common ideals as the Revolution that exploded on the streets the following day. Sixty-five years later, the programme evokes the memory of this concert. Naturally, at its core is a repeat recital of the Piano Concerto No. 2, with solo by Kossuth Prize laureate János Balázs, founder of the Cziffra Festival. And just like on the famous closing evening of the 1956 Bartók Festival, here too the programme concludes with the second symphony by Brahms, as performed by Gábor Takács-Nagy and Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra.