CURRICULUM VITAE
I was born in
Budapest,
Hungary, on
26th March 1959 and started playing the piano in 1965 with Ilona Csákvári who, on her part,
had studied with Károly Aggházy, one of Liszt’s
Weimar pupils in the one-time
National
School of Music. My first public
appearance was in 1966.
After having mastered the subject matter of instruction in four
years instead of six, I was admitted to the Béla Bartók Conservatory In 1969. My teacher there was Lajos Kertész, the excellent
Bartók interpreter, later head of department at the Teachers’
Training
College of the
Liszt
Academy. During his tour of
Japan I studied a term with
Marianne Ábrahám.
In 1971 I won the second prize at the International Youth Piano
Competition in Ušti nad
Labem,
Czechoslovakia, in the category of
12-13-year-old pianists.
A year later, in 1972 I was awarded the first prize in the same
category and the special prize for the best interpretation irrespective of age
groups. I first played with orchestral accompaniment (Haydn’s Piano Concerto
in D major) and gave my first
recital that year, at the age of 13.
In 1973 I got the Klára Chitz prize distributed among the best
graduating students of the Bartók Conservatory each year. At the same time I
was admitted, aged 14, as an ordinary student to the piano department of the
Ferenc
Liszt
Academy of Music, the first since
1945. My professors there were the legendary Pál Kadosa and his assistant Dezsö
Ránki. Due to Ránki’s frequent concert tours I studied a year each with Jenö
Jandó and Anikó Szegedi, six months with Kálmán Dráfy. Occasionally I received instruction from Ferenc Rados, Zoltán Kocsis and
György Ferenczy as well.
My first concert at the
Academy of
Music, a recital with works by
Prokofiev was given in 1977.
In 1978 I was accepted to the artist’s training course founded by
Ernö Dohnányi at the Academy of Music and was rewarded by ARTISJUS (the
Hungarian Copyright Office) for the performance of contemporary Hungarian
music.
In 1979 I won the first prize at the piano competition of the Hungarian
Radio and also the special prize given to the best contestant of the Academy.
(The prize-winners of this competition organized merely seven times included
Gyula Kiss, Zoltán Kocsis, Jenö Jandó, Péter Nagy and later Csaba Király and
Gábor Farkas as wel).
My
first recital broadcast live and my first live performance with an orchestra
(playing Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini) were in 1979. Since then I have appeared
regularly in the Hungarian Radio. Its archives keep about two hours’ studio
recording and about sixty hours live transmission and concert recordings with
me.
In 1979-1980 I won the scholarship founded by Mrs Bartók née Ditta
Pászthori given to the best students of the
Academy of
Music.
I first played to Georges Cziffra in Senlis in 1981, then performed
at six gala nights of the Cziffra Foundation in Hungary and France between 1982
and 1986.
In 1982 I graduated as a pianist from the
Academy of
Music but continued studying
privately with the pianist Péter Solymos, an excellent Debussy-interpreter and
professor at the Academy.
In 1982, 1983 and 1985 I attended the July courses of Yvonne
Lefébure given in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Debussy’s birthplace) and Paris,
respectively (Juillet Musical).
In 1982 I won the first grand prix at the
Paris International Debussy Piano
Competition rewarded with thirty thousand FR. There were two more occasions when one could enter for this prize: in
1980 and 1984 but then no competitor was found worthy of it.
In 1982-83 and 1983-84 I received a grant from the Hungarian
Ministry of Culture for my accomplishments at the Debussy Competition. This
grant provided young artists the opportunity to give one or two concerts each
month in
Hungary and to get involved in the
musical life.
In 1983-84 I studied with the world-famous professor Yvonne
Lefébure at the
Paris Conservatoire Européen de
Musique and graduated from it with a master diploma in 1984.
In 1984, while I was still staying in
France, the Ministry of Culture
withdrew its grant without offering an explanation and excluded me thereby from
concert life. I was not allowed to return to
France for the second year to
obtain the highest diploma of the Conservatoire. At the same time, getting a
job in Hungarian musical life from the
Music
Academy to the smallest music school
in the country was made impossible for me. (Let me remark that to my studies in
France in July 1982, 1983, 1985 and at the academic year
1983-84 I was given a French state scholarship. Otherwise my parents supported
me. The relevant authorities of the dictatorship did not finance my studies and
trips abroad.
In
1985 I received the prize Fonds International de l'Etnr'aide Musicale of
UNESCO. That was the last year when I entered a musical competition. (In
Bolzano I was
eliminated from the qualifying round). The dramatic deterioration of my
circumstances did not permit entering further competitions. The balance of my
five entries is: a second and three first prizes.
In 1986 I took part in Georges Cziffra’s first master-course in Keszthely.
Since then I have been working alone.
In 1986 I was awarded the Bonnaud-Chevillion-Prize of the Fondation
de France given to the two best pupils of the Conservatoire Européen de Musique
every third year. However, I was not able to pursue my studies in
France as my professor had died in
the meantime. The same year, I gave a self-organized Liszt recital on the
centenary of his death in the small room of the
Budapest
Academy of Music attended by a
fairly large audience. The relevant authorities of musical life were
conspicuous by their absence.
In 1987 I was included in the Fondation Cziffra’s list of soloists
and was allowed to make my first studio recording at the Hungarian Radio (of
Beethoven’s Sonata in G major op. 31 № 1), which was less indicative
of the silence imposed on me than of the increasing unease of the dictatorship.
Except for a year and a half I have been dealing almost exclusively
with Hungarian music ever since 1987. My special field comprises 19th- and
turn-of-the-century romantic composers. I have studied this era as an amateur
music historian as well. My articles and studies devoted to the period appear
in dailies, scientific reviews and volumes of essays and studies.
I could first make recordings, after involuntary silence, in 1988,
i.e. the first world recording of the complete piano works of Ernest Bloch
(1880–1959) commissioned by
Naxos. More than thirty CDs have followed (with works by
Bartók, Erkel, Hubay, Mosonyi, Volkmann and Weiner). I subordinate my artistic
activities to recording.
Since 1989 I have been founder and member of board of the Ferenc
Erkel Society. In 1998 I was elected board member of the Jenö Hubay Society and
that of the László Lajtha Society in 2000.
In 1990 I was awarded the Hungarian Radio’s prize for the
high-standard studio recording of Ferenc Erkel’s piano works. At the Erkel
Society’s historical concerts given in Gyula on each March 15th and transmitted
live since 1990, later on at other sites I played several premieres, concert
hall and modern first performances, among them from works by Erkel, Mosonyi,
Brahms, Dohnányi and Bartók.
In 1991 my double-CD of the complete edition of Ferenc Erkel’s
(1810–1893) piano works, chamber music and opera transcriptions was released by
Naxos. It was recorded a year
before with the contribution of Ferenc Szecsödi and Péter Lukács.
In 1993-95 I edited the first volume of Georges Cziffra’s
improvisations. The greater part of these pieces had to be notated from
recordings by ear since no manuscripts existed or the notation was inadequate
for editing purposes. This edition could unfortunately not be continued after
Georges Cziffra’s death as his widow has quite peculiar ideas of the editor’s
legal status.
Since 1995 I have been working on the music edition of works by
Mihály Mosonyi (1815–1870). Due to the miserable financing conditions I have
managed to publish only three volumes so far although I have already prepared
several volumes for publication.
From spring 1997 onwards I have made records for Hungaroton Classic,
starting with the recording of Jenö Hubay’s (1858–1937) complete violin-piano
output with Ferenc Szecsödi and the complete piano work by Leó Weiner
(1885–1960) that year.
The last album of a set of six CDs was released in 1999, containing
Mihály Mosonyi’s complete works for piano, piano duet and chamber music with
piano recorded with the contribution of Klára Körmendi (piano), Leila Rásonyi
(violin) and Judit Kiss-Domonkos (cello) between 1992 and 1997 and released by
Naxos between 1994 and 1999.
In 2000 a supplementary album to the famous Bartók Complete Edition
of Hungaroton was released with my contribution, playing three piano works. The
Japanese firm King Records took over the complete edition and issued it with
different covers that same year.
In 2001 I was awarded the Liszt Ferenc-Prize, the highest
professional distinction in
Hungary. At a concert of the
Symphonic Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio organized on World Music Day I
appeared at Mihály Mosonyi’s first all-night orchestral evening as the soloist
of the Piano Concerto in the great hall of the Budapest Academy of
Music. The concert was broadcast by the radio stations of nineteen EBU
countries live or from recording.
Since 2002 I have felt the need to join concert life – temporarily
only in
Hungary – and compile
three
to five different programmes each year, for the greater part from the
masterpieces of the Hungarian history of music.
In 2003 the publishing house Editio Musica
Budapest invited me to edit a volume
(II/15, jointly with Imre Sulyok) of the famous
Budapest Liszt Edition (NLE), which
was the recognition of my music editing work so far. My CD recording Dohnányi’s
chamber music with the Auer String Quartet was also released in 2003.
In 2004 my
selection from the Hungarian-related works of Robert Volkmann (1815–1883)
recorded the year before was released.
In 2007 the last
album of Leó Weiner’s complete piano music was issued. The four albums were
recorded from 1997 to 2006 and released by Hungaroton between 1998 and 2007. I
interpreted both parts of the works for piano four hands and two pianos made
possible by up-to-date recording technology.
This summer I
was operated on both eyes and so my handicap in musical life has ceased.
In 2009 the
last CD of a series of thirteen albums with the complete violin-piano output of
Jenő Hubay (1858-1937) will be released. It was recorded with Ferenc Szecsődi
for the record publishing company Hungaroton between 1997 and 2008 and has
appeared from 1997 onwards continuously. This was the so far greatest
undertaking in the history of the Hungarian recording industry begun and
completed by a solo artist.
In 2010 I was awarded the Leo Weiner Memorial Prize.
This summer I got married Valéria Csányi conductor.
Since 2013 I am full member of the Hungaroan Academy of Arts
