Liszt Academy’s joint international programme series marks Bartók Year

2016 marks the 135th anniversary of the composer Béla Bartók’s birth, which prompted the Liszt Academy not only to organise local concerts but also to participate in numerous other programmes related to this occasion. Its contribution is highly legitimate, as in the enhancement of Bartók’s musical legacy, in particular in the fields of education and composition, Hungary has a privileged position, with the Liszt Academy as a torchbearer. This institution was not only Bartók’s alma mater, but this is also where he exerted so much influence on several generations as a teacher and where his ethos is still preserved and guarded as a living spring and eternal flame. This living tradition is conveyed to the audience of international musicians by the teachers and students of the Liszt Academy within the framework of the programme series marking the Bartók Year.

Béla Bartók will be in the centre of attention in fifteen cities abroad – making serious use of the partnerships network of the Liszt Academy - with the events called to life by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Hungarian embassies and the Hungarian cultural institutions of the given country.  The unique quality of the programme series lies in the fact that the academic staff and the students of the Liszt Academy will be celebrating Bartók, this highly influential composer alongside the most prominent music academies of the host countries in the most varied forms possible befitting Bartók’s oeuvre, preparing thereby new significant cultural and educational collaborations.

On 24 and 25 October at the Tokyo University of Arts, the Head of the Keyboard Department of the Liszt Academy, Prof Kálmán Dráfi and László Szlama will be giving a masterclass, a presentation on folk music and a joint concert with the local students. Between 7 and 9 November, the students of the Academy of Music in Zagreb will have the opportunity to become more familiar with Bartók – and in his footsteps – with Ligeti and Kurtág thanks to Gábor Csalog’s professional contribution. The educational events will be followed by a concert featuring the compositions of Bartók and Ligeti. Between 31 October and 3 November, László Norbert Nemes and Anikó Novák will be holding a joint choir conducting masterclass at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

On 17 and 18 November, three professors of the Liszt Academy, Kálmán Dráfi, László Norbert Nemes and László Vikárius will be delivering courses related to Bartók’s oeuvre to the students and academics of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. The lectures will be followed by public rehearsals and a discussion focussing on Bartók’s work taking place in the library of the Peace Palace. The course will come to end with a music performance in the concert hall of the Royal Conservatoire given by Kálmán Dráfi, the attending students and the Dutch National Youth Choir conducted by László Norbert Nemes and Wilma ten Wolde, while on 20 November, the Ellen Cover Trio will be playing Bartók’s Contrasts in the concert hall of the Conservatoire. In the course of the weekend, László Norbert Nemes will be holding a training course for Dutch music teachers in the joint organisation of the foundation Vocaal Talent Nederland and the Royal Conservatoire.

A masterclass concentrating on Bartók’s Serbian folk music collection in the Banat will be delivered by Gábor Eredics on 18-20 November in the cooperation of the University of Arts in Belgrade and the Liszt Academy. In Brussels, the musicologist László Vikárius will be talking about Bartók’s work, which will be followed by Barnabás Kelemen and Katalin Kokas performing some of Bartók’s violin compositions in the concert hall of the Royal Conservatoire on 21 November. In Geneva, on 22 November, László Borbély will be delivering a masterclass on the works of Bartók, Ligeti and Kurtág for the students of the Haute École de Musique de Genève. Then on 13 December, the students of the Viennese Universität der Musik und darstellende Kunst will be playing some of Bartók’s compositions in collaboration with László Borbély and Imre Dani.

Between 20 and 23 November, György Nádor and Pál Richter alongside one of the piano students of the Liszt Academy, Gergely Kovács will be participating in the interactive conference organised with the Keyboard Department of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. The delegates will moreover help the attendees of their masterclasses gain deeper insight into Bartók’s music. The closing piano recital of the festivities performed by Gergely Kovács and the Head of the Keyboard Department of the JAMD, Ron Regev will –among others - feature some of Bartók’s piano pieces.   Between 29 November and 1 December, Gábor Csalog will be giving a course on Bartók’s and – following his legacy – on Ligeti and Kurtág’s works to the attendees from the Hochschule für Musik Hanss Eilser in Berlin. In the same city but at a different institution, at the Berlin University of Arts, András Almási-Tóth will be delivering a masterclass aiding the understanding and interpretation of Bartók’s opera Bluebeard’s Castle.   

In London, alongside the students of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Head – Gyula Fekete - and two students of the Composition Department of the Liszt Academy, Bálint Laczkó and Ádám Brandenburg together with the young pianist, Domonkos Csabay will be giving an interactive masterclass to composition students. The fruits of this collaboration will then be presented to the public as a concert. The Tbilisi State Conservatoire will be hosting Gábor Farkas’s masterclass and piano recital as well as young composers’ opportunity to present their Bartók-reflections between 20 and  25 November, which will be concluded with the joint concert of the students of the two academies.

On 2 December, Gábor Eckhard will be delivering a masterclass in cooperation with the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, thanks to which the students of the Polish institution will have the chance to become more closely familiar with the folk music motifs of Bartók’s piano pieces and with the Microcosmos.

Finally, as the last element of the programme series, - similarly to the London event - an interactive workshop reflecting on Bartók’s compositions will be organised at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome on 4-7 December. The workshop will again be run by Gyula Fekete, and the resulting production will be opened to the audience in the grand hall of the Accademia d’Ungheria.

Click here to read more about the programme series and its sites. 

This cultural event series is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the budget dedicated to the Bartók Year.