Péter Nagy

Born: 1960, Hungary

 

University position: associate professor

 

1968-1975: Franz Liszt Academy of Music, School for Exceptional Young Talents – professors: Klára Máthé, Ferenc Rados

1975-1979: Franz Liszt Academy of Music – professor: Kornél Zempléni

- Amadeus Webersinke, Malcolm Bilson

- 1984-1987: classes with György Sebők, Indiana University, Bloomington

 

Prof. Nagy has been teaching at the Liszt Academy since 1987. He was the Head of the Piano Department between January 2007 - July 2011. He is also the head of the piano section of the Doctoral School of the Academy.

Besides teching in Budapest, he is also a piano professor of the Hochschule für Musik, Stuttgart, Germany.

 

Hochschule für Muzik, Weimar

Toho Gauken College of Music, Tokyo

 

His international career began in 1977, with successful performances in Finland, Yugoslavia and in Salzburg in 1979. Previously, he had been touring in the German Democratic Republic and in the Soviet Union. His participation at the Menton Festival in 1979 marked his debut in France. In 1980, he performed at the Bordeaux Festival of Young Soloists and at the Bratislava International Rostrum for Young Interpreters with great success. Mr. Francois Reichenbach, the world famous French film director shot a TV film in Paris featuring Péter Nagy and Zoltán Kocsis as a piano duo and as soloists. They also performed together as soloists with the Chamber Orchestra of the Liszt Academy in the major cities of Germany.

 

Some of the highlights of Mr. Nagy's world-wide concert tours include recitals in Australia at the Sydney Opera House, in the Louvre Auditorium in Paris, in Tokyo, Yokohama, Sapporo and other cities in Japan. He performed as a soloist with widely acclaimed orchestras, such as the Tokyo Symphonic Orchestra, Yomiuri Symphonic Orchestra, Thessaloniki State Symphonic Orchestra, Helsinky Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Orchestra, Hungarian State Symphonic Orchestra, Hungarian Radio Orchestra. He gave recitals in the most significant concert halls of Europe, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand.

 

As a chamber musician, he performed at major festivals, including Aix-en-Provence, Athens, Bastad, Blonay, Davos, Divonne, Llandoff, Kilkenny, Edinburgh, Turku, Joensuu, Kuhmo, Moritzburg, Stresa, Stockholm, Helsinki, Ojai, Marlboro, Beijing and Shanghai International Piano Festival, the Virtuoso and Belcanto Festival Lucca and Internationale Sommerakademie der Universität für Musik und Darstellenden Kunst Wien.

 

Péter Nagy works with Greek violinist, Leonidas Kavakos, frequently. The duo has received invitations for tours in the USA, Spain, Greece,Germany, Italy, Scandinavia and Hungary. In 1988 Mr. Nagy and Mr. Kavakos formed a trio with Finnish cellist Martti Rousi, making their debut at the Helsinki Festival. The list of his chamber music partners includes names such as the Bartók String Quartet, Zoltán Kocsis, László Polgár, Miklós Perényi, Kim Kashkashian, Boris Pergamenschikow, Charles Neidich, Nobuko Imai, Nathalian Rosen, Ruggiero Ricci, Bruno Giuranna, Frans Helmerson, Colin Carr, Claudio Bohórquez. In recent years, Mr. Nagy has been collaborating with violist Kim Kashkashian, giving duo recitals in Europe and in the United States. As part of his exclusive contract with HNH International Ltd., prof. Nagy made an extensive tour in the Far East.

 

He has made several recordings for Hungaroton, Delos, Naxos, BIS,  ECM, Decca and Berlin Classics labels.

 

1971: International Concours, in Usti nad Labem (Czechoslovakia) – 2nd prize

1979: Hungarian Radio Competition – 1^st prize

1980: Bordeaux, Festival of Young Soloists – 1^st prize

2001: Liszt prize

 

pnagyp[at]gmail.com

 

 

 

For his new recital on ECM, Leonidas Kavakos chooses the great Romanian composer-violinist George Enescu as his central theme, the likelihood being that Ravel's little-known First Violin Sonata (1897) was inspired by Enescu's playing. The musical style mirrors Debussy, a connection well made by Kavakos and his superbly responsive pianist, Péter Nagy. All three remaining works feed off folk roots, Ravel's "Tzigane" taking its lead from Bartók, and Enescu's sensuous Third Sonata twisting between major and minor like the folk fiddlers who inspired it.

 

A compelling programme based principally around the figure of Georges Enescu, both as composer and as a performing phenomenon, the latter probably inspiring Ravel's Violin Sonata of 1897, a lavish essay redolent of romantic early Debussy. Both Ravel pieces respond handsomely to Leonidas Kavakos's agile and refined approach, "Tzigane" in particular being meticulously prepared, the partnership with Péter Nagy ensuring clarity in matters of articulation and the "pick-up" of motives between violin and piano. Indeed I don't thing I've ever heard a more supportive or more sensitively gauged account of the piano part.

These are not showy performances. For although Kavakos is audibly appreciative of the folk flavouring in Enescu's Third Sonata, he treats the abstract element as paramount, suggesting keen parallels with the violin sonatas of Bartók. Again Nagy takes the greatest care over such issues as rhythm, texture and the shape of individual phrases: his precise musical thinking could serve as an object lesson in such matters. … The graphic "Impressions d'enfance", with its lullaby, caged bird and cuckoo-clock, chirping cricket and ecstatic dawn, is endlessly fascinating, again rich in folk references, the sort that Enescu worked in to his "Romainian Rhapsodies". … These new performances justify consideration for their warmth, intelligence and superb sound, not to mention ECM's (or maybe Kavakos's) imaginative programming.

 

Maurice Ravel selbst war sich nicht sicher, ob „Tzigane" überhaupt „spielbar" sei. Nun ist Leonidas Kavakos auf seiner neuen CD den Gegenbeweis angetreten. Mit großer Souveränität führt der griechische Geiger in jenem berühmt-berüchtigten Virtuosenschmankerl die Doppelgriffe aus, setzt blitzsaubere Flageoletts und spielt geschmackvolle Portamenti. Eine hinreißende Klarheit seines Spiels auch bei Ravels „Sonate posthume". Der Musik von Maurice Ravel hat Kavakos zwei Kompositionen George Enescus zur Seite gestellt und dadurch für eine wichtige Repertoirebereicherung gesorgt. In Enescus vielsätzigem Stück „Impressions d'enfance" beweist Kavakos viel Gespür für den von Enescu intendierten rechten „Volkston". Er bewältigt die rhythmischen Vertracktheiten des Stücks mit messerscharfer Präzision, zeichnet all die tonmalerischen Finessen mit schattierungsreicher Farbgebung Ton nach. Feinfühlig lotet Kavakos auch die emotionale Tiefe von Enescus dritter Violinsonate aus. Kongenialer, stilsicherer Begleiter am Klavier: Péter Nagy.

 

Leonidas Kavakos hat zusammen mit dem Pianisten Péter Nagy eine wirklich spektakuläre CD eingespielt, auf der sich neben dem „Tzigane" von Maurice Ravel drei ungemein reizvolle, aber wenig geläufige Werke finden, nämlich Ravels posthum veröffentlichte frühe Violinsonate von 1897 sowie die Impressionen aus der Kindheit und die 3. Sonate a-moll op. 25 von George Enescu. Leonidas Kavakos ist über seinen Lehrer Josef Gingold und dessen Lehrer Ysaye der franco-belgischen Tradition verbunden und er repräsentiert diese Schule auf eine besonders noble Art. ... Die Ravel-Sonate spielt er ganz aus dem Geist Faurés, den Tzigane als eine ungemein geistvolle Abhandlung über die Melodiebildung in der Zigeunermusik, und bei Enescu ist er völlig in seinem Element. Eine Kostbarkeit sind die „Impressions d'enfance" aus dem Jahr 1940, die Enescu selbst zusammen mit Dinu Lipatti in Bukarest uraufgeführt hat. Kavakos verfällt hier nie in den Ton eines Barden, sondern entpuppt sich als ein Erzähler von Proust'scher Eleganz.

 

Every now and again, along comes a CD that has everything: fascinating repertoire, exceptional sound production and playing of genius. This is one of those… Ravel and Enescu were fellow students in Fauré's composition class at the Paris Conservatoire in the mid-1890s, so pairing the two is an exciting idea that works. In their idiosyncratic, vibrant music, the Greek virtuoso Leonidas Kavakos transforms his instrument into more than just a violin. Together with Péter Nagy, he creates entire universes of atmosphere that most others don't even imagine.

 

Leonidas Kavakos und Péter Nagy nähern sich Ravel und Enescu mit skrupulöser Genauigkeit. Statt sich dem emotionalen Impuls zu überlassen, statt den vermeintlich natürlichen Schwung zu nutzen, setzen sie die Werke wie Neue Musik behutsam aus ihren Grundelementen zusammen. Von den ungeheuer beredten und präzise beleuchteten Details her wird Enescus rhapsodisches Gebilde peu à peu im Ganzen greifbar, während die „Tzigane" … in unberührbarer Glätte ganz neu zu entstehen scheint. Kavakos' ECM-Debüt besticht nicht nur durch seine intelligente Programmzusammenstellung. Es belegt einmal mehr, worin sein Ausnahmerang unter den heutigen Geigern besteht: in der Verbindung von intellektueller Überlegenheit und instrumentalem Eros. Immense Steigerungen, makellose Tongebung, schier unglaubliche Flageoletts, Triller oder Staccati – hier ist für alles gesorgt!

 

Un magnifique programme, une interprétation digne d'éloges : un disque à recommander sans aucune hésitation.

 

 

Maurice Ravel and Georges Enescu: the reserved, fastidious French dandy and the bold, passionate Romanian violinist with a penchant for folk music. Unlikely bedfellows? Not really, especially when you realise the connections that weave through this attractive recital. As students in Paris, Ravel and Enescu met in Fauré's composition class. It was possibly Enescu's playing that inspired Ravel's early Violin Sonata from 1897. Leonidas Kavakos seems to think so, holding nothing back in the climaxes, yet finding pools of stillness in which to pause, while Peter Nagy's virile pianism prevents any hint of washiness from muddying the textures.

 

So what about Ravel's Tzigane, tailor-made for a larger-than-life violinist like Enescu? Well, strangely perhaps, it wasn't; Ravel wrote it for the Hungarian violinist Jelly d'Aranyi. The notes suggest that Enescu would have been unhappy with Ravel's use of gypsy music, when Enescu was in search of true Romanian folk music. He tried to make the distinction clear in the subtitle to his Third Violin Sonata: in the popular Romanian character rather than Romany, and cleverly Enescu manages to imitate the sound of the cimbalom, using quarter-tones in the violin, and clusters of chords in the piano. Kavakos has everything it takes in both pieces: compelling musicianship, and an instinctive grasp of the folk idioms behind the manuscript paper, while it's Nagy who makes the performance of Tzigane particularly effective, never allowing the fact that this is a famous virtuoso violin vehicle from cowing him into merely accompanying.

 

Ravel as a composer was often enticed by childhood images and memories, and he'd have appreciated the ten miniature tone poems that make up Enescu's Impressions of Childhood. Nothing childish about the demands on the players though, from the solo evocation of a strolling fiddler at the top, to the concluding sunrise...the clever imitations of the caged bird and the cuckoo clock or the chirping of the cricket are brilliantly brought off.

 

The recording is spot on, beautifully balanced, with the piano allowed full participation without ever obliterating the violin, no matter how full the tone, and the ambience and air around the sound is beautifully caught.

 

It's the best kind of ECM recital: imaginative programming, passionate performances, luxurious recording and elegantly informative notes. All boxes ticked, then. Sally forth and buy one.

 

 

The high point of both concerts was the appearance of Peter Nagy, a distinguished Hungarian pianist on the staff of Canterbury University's Music Department, who took part in Mozart's two Piano Quartets.

 

Within four bars of the G minor work, brilliant performances could be predicted; Nagy delivered coruscating passagework and phrasing of ineffable rightness. The three String players, especially on Saturday, were inspired to new heights.

 

The mercurial Nagy was the leader; what could have been Viennese prettiness at times took on a darker sheen and the slow movements were as intensely moving as the much later Beethoven, especially in the exchanges of the E flat Trio's Larghetto.

 

Peter Nagy was by far the most convincing of the group of young Hungarian pianists Hong brought out in the recent months by Pacific Music.

 

Soloist Péter Nagy spürte bei Mozart der leichtfingrigen Eleganz der Ecksatze und der

schaferspielartigen Melancholie des Mittelsatzes mit grossem Feingefühl nach.

 

"Péter Nagy betonte in Mozart Konzert C-Dur KV 264 das spielerische Element, gewann dem reichen Lauf und Figurationswerk Glanz ab, vernachlassigte jedoch nie die musikalische Substanz des Werks. Im ruhigen Mittelsatz { Andante} brachte er den Klavier zum singen, trug die teils liedhaft-schlichten Melodiebögen mit feinem Gespür für die ihnen innewohnende sanfte Spannung aus und verlieh ihnen, indem er jede metrischeVerfestigung abstreifte, einen schwebenden Zug.

 

Dmitri Shostakovich's Viola Sonata is one of the century's greatest sonatas, and its stature was fully realized Saturday night at the Library of Congress in a performance by violist Kim Kashkashian and pianist Péter Nagy.

 

Mr.Nagy also gave an eloquent account of one of Schubert's least-heard piano works,the five-movement Sonata, D.459.

 

Soloist, accompanist reach Olympian heights. Leonidas Kavakos-Péter Nagy at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

 

Leonidas Kavakos plays Stravinsky's works for violin and piano with spiky relish and, especially in the Duo concertant, supported by Péter Nagy, probes deeper, quasi-mythic levels of musical suggestiveness as well. The duo extracts bracing effects even in passages of greatest textural asperity...In the Suite italienne, Kavakos and Nagy combine Mediterranean suavity now with savage ferocity (in the Tarantella) and now with mosaic pattern-making (in the Gavotte). Kavakos probes unaccompanied Bach with a sonorous virtuosity that could almost distract the listener's attention if he didn't employ his facility, as in the Corrente's double (from the B-Minor Partita), to create dazzling, multilayered kaleidoscopic effects. He achieves complexity effortlessly, with none of the artificer's techniques drawing attention to themselves... Kavakos (and Nagy) recorded their program in 2002 at the Radio Studio DRS in Zurich, where the engineers caught his Bach readings up close in reverberant recorded sound...In Stravinsky's Duo concertant, the closeness of violin and piano allows the listener to experience full voltageof the performances' electrical current.

Robert Maxham, FANFARE