MÁV Symphony Orchestra Presented by Liszt Academy

Any concert which features Dezső Ránki as soloist is a cause for celebration. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes his productions so different from, and – judging from the endless praise – more valuable than, others from equally excellent pianists, but certainly the radiance of his personality, his unqualified humility in the face of the work and its author, and his respect for the audience contribute to his uniqueness. Dezső Ránki graduated from the legendary piano department of the Liszt Academy as a student of Pál Kadosa, in the company of Zoltán Kocsis, Jenő Jandó and András Schiff. The bedrock of his career was the first prize he took at the 1969 International Schumann Piano Competition in Zwickau; he has since performed with a succession of world-famous conductors and is a double Kossuth Prize laureate. For this concert he plays two Mozart piano concertos. While we are all familiar with these works, it is as though with Ránki’s performance we are really hearing them for the first time. Schubert’s Great C major symphony of ‘heavenly length’ follows after the break. This marvellous composer, who died tragically young, did not experience real success in his lifetime and he was never to hear this wonderful work performed in concert. The piece was forgotten following his death and only ‘rediscovered’ by Mendelssohn decades later, before being finally presented to the world in Leipzig by the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Since then, it has been ranked as one of the seminal pieces of the symphonic canon.