Liszt Festivals Abroad

This year the Weimar Hochschule celebrated Liszt’s birthday together with Hungarian artists, thanks to Balázs Szokolay, professor of the Academy of Music in Weimar and in Budapest as well. That’s why the festival was named Liszt meets Liszt. It was Szokolay’s idea to provide Hungarian musicological context and information for the German audience during the four-day festival. Thomas Steinhöfel, professor at the Weimar Hochschule took part as a fellow artist in the festival, and helped Balázs Szokolay to organize the programs. The birthday concerts that included works by Liszt, Bartók, Beethoven and Ligeti were followed by early music concerts: the Excanto ensemble performed early Hungarian music starting from the Middle Ages. There was also a special concert commemorating Philipp Emanuel Bach who was born in the town of Weimar 300 years ago. The folk music was also a great success especially because Bartók’s works and the original folk melodies created a perfect harmony and balance. Zoltán Kodály’s rarely performed cello-piano sonata was performed at the final concert. The whole event was a great success, the concert hall was full. Some of the performers held master classes which were followed by concert by the students. András Kemenes gave a lecture about a work by Philipp Emanuel Bach. Balázs Szokolay and Thomas Steinhöfel were not only organizers, but performing artists, as well. The Hungarian pianist played at four out of five concerts. The guest of honor at the Liszt birthday celebration was Péter Esterházy who read excerpts from his Harmonia Caelestis. The Hungarian Academy of Music was represented by two artist teachers, Katalin Halmai and András Kemenes and the director of the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum and Research Centre Zsuzsanna Domokos who was the moderator of four concerts.

The participants of the festival were Katalin Halmai, Kristóf Baráti, István Várdai, Balázs Szokolay, István Lajkó, Lydia Rinecker, Dániel Villányi, Thomas Steinhöfel, Katalin Kállay, Ágnes Kállay, Gábor Kállay, István Győr, András Kemenes, Balázs Szokolay Dongó, Aliz Agod, László Fenyő, Péter Esterházy and Zsuzsanna Domokos.