Concert by Students of the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar A Zeneakadémia saját szervezésű programja

The two institutions bearing the name of the great composer were opened at a two-year gap in Weimar and in Budapest, the two cities where Liszt spent a great deal of his later life. However, while the Liszt Academy in Budapest was founded personally by Liszt, in Weimar it was one of his students who – certainly encouraged by Liszt – established the university, which has worked under the emblem of Franz Liszt’s name since 1956. Although both institutions nurture of the artistic legacy of the piano virtuoso and composer, it is important to note that only the piano students of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music can regard themselves as the “direct descendants” of Liszt, as the aged maestro never taught classes at the Weimar school. The affinity of the two institutions is reinforced by the mutual relationship between the students and the professors: Balázs Szokolay gives classes both at the Liszt Academy and in Weimar. In the representative concert program of the students from Weimar, the first half highlights piano playing and singing, while in the second half the cello and the violin come to the fore besides the piano: the young artists will present songs by Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Bartók and Rachmaninov, as well as piano works of Scriabin and Debussy; their repertoire also includes Pulitzer Prize winning contemporary American composer William Bolcom’s song “Amor”, two pieces from Karol Szymanowski’s Mazurkas, standing out in his oeuvre, Britten’s Sonata for cello and piano, and last but not least, the solo sonata of Spanish cellist-composer Gaspar Cassado.