Visiting Liszt at home in Sugár Avenue
Upon entering Franz Liszt’s former home at the Academy of Music, visitors are immediately touched by the master’s spirit channeled through his personal belongings, instruments and different portraits hanging on the walls.
We have made an attempt to reconstruct what the neighborhood and the building looked like in the 1880s, when Liszt moved in. The exhibition shows who and how prepared the service apartment for him as described in one of his letters. We also know what his schedule looked like.
His daily activity included praying, composing, teaching, tending to official duties, correspondence, caring for his students and engaging in everyday conversations with his guests and fellow professors.
He often welcomed prestigious guests, organized soirées and intimate whist-parties with friends during which they often consumed a bottle of fine cognac.
Instrument makers, publishers, musician friends, owners of the visiting cards left behind and people from descriptions and letters come to life in our exhibition.
We also offer a closer look at the social life of the time by taking our audience into Liszt’s own salon and the adjoining chamber hall.
The memories of contemporaries, guests, and students recall some of the exceptional moments from the life of the old master living in Budapest. These recollections allow us to look at Liszt as a teacher and as a dedicated president fighting to promote and improve the Academy. Liszt in Budapest was known as a cordial host, a composer working hard on completing some of his compositions, an abbé in deep devotion, the pianist meeting with fellow musicians for chamber music and living an overall joyful life socializing as a passionate card player with the wish to win.
Zsuzsanna Domokos Phd
Director of the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum and Research Centre
The exhibition was made with Prezi. You can move forwards and backwards between paragraphs using the navigation keys, the SPACE key, or pressing the arrow in the chosen direction at the bottom of the screen. You can use the mouse to override the autoplay. You can start at or skip any part you like. To zoom in and out on the selected document use the scroll of the mouse. Have fun browsing! |
The showcases of the virtual version of the exhibition can be viewed at the following links:
Case 1 – Academy of Music on Sugar street – the building from outside and inside
Case 2 – Furniture, Liszt's everyday life in Budapest
Case 3-4 – Compositions written in Liszt’s home at the Avenue
Case 6 – Liszt's visitors – Owners of visiting cards
Case 7 – The most important social scene: drawing-rooms
Case 8 – Franz Liszt’s friends and colleagues at the Academy of Music:
I. János Verebi Végh Vice President
Case 9 – Liszt’s fellow professors at the Academy
Case 10 – Franz Liszt’s Hungarian students - I
Case 11 – Franz Liszt’s Hungarian students - II
Case 12 – Ferenc Liszt and the Pulszky family
Case 13 – Musical instruments and instrument makers
Case 15 – Liszt and Hungarian Opera
Case 17 – Liszt and his artist friends
Tableau – Important friends, teachers, students to Liszt who living
On the maps the place where the building of the Old Music Academy stands