The second Liszt Festival in Schillingsfürst 2018

The second Liszt Festival and the international meeting of the Liszt Museums was organized in Schillingsfürst between 7 and 14 of July 2018. This event follows the initiative launched in September 2016 – with the aim to establish future multilateral cooperation amongst the institutions by personal meetings – when Budapest welcomed representatives of partner museums and memorial sites related to Franz Liszt.

This year, for the first time Bayreuth was represented as well along with the other Liszt Museums: Schillingsfürst by Constantin Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst and Hans Emmert; Weimar by Dr. Evelyn Liepsch; Raiding by Dr. Martin Czernin and Manfred Fux; Bayreuth by Dr. Friedrich Sven and Budapest by Dr. Zsuzsanna Domokos. The participants had the opportunity to extend the cooperation by elaborating on particular topics. The first step might be to launch a common website in German, English and Hungarian which could serve as the basis of future scientific cooperation. Participants came up with excellent ideas about how each intitution could introduce the partner museum and the plan of a Liszt touristic trail was discussed as well. Special events like this festival will be given a higher international status due to the presence and assistance of other museums’ representatives.

The symposium held on the first day was a new event within the festival programme and was dedicated to finding the best tools and methods of bringing classical music closer to members of the younger generations and to refine their musical taste. The lecturers were the following: Dr. Albert von Massow, new head of the Liszt Society in Weimar, director Ruth Reuter, Florian Glemser from the neighboring Dinkelsbühl and Dávid Spischak representing the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum in Budapest. The festival’s main presentation was held by Nike Wagner about the relationship of Liszt and Wagner on 11 July in the concert hall of Schillingsfürst Palace. Florian Glemser gave the opening concert performing Beethoven, Liszt and Brahms pieces. On the following evening a wonderful Bach-Liszt organ concert was given by Michael Schöch in the local protestant church. As a tradition, from Monday till Friday Leslie Howard held a masterclass for international students who pleased the public with a beautiful closing concert.

The gala dinner was dedicated to the favorite Italian dishes of the Hungarian composer. The hosts of the event, Constantin Fürst zu Hohenlohe Schillingsfürst and Prof. Rolf-Dieter Arens expressed their gratitude to Hans Emmert by presenting a Liszt plaque for his persistant hard work of organizing the festival and for coordinating the publication of a beautiful printed magazine about the programme of last year's Liszt Festival.