Magyar Hírek, 1986 (39. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1986-05-23 / 10. szám
ABOUT THIS ISSUE AND THE PREVIOUS ONE Ambassador Mátyás Domokos congratulates Antal Doráti Antal Doráti is 80 In the previous issue András Lukácsy probed into a sphere of questions, which are 6ure to interest readers of Hungarian Scene. The caption of his piece was “Where is Hungary on the cultural map?”, and in it he examined various fields of culture from music to literature asking whether Hungarian works do or do not reach foreign listeners, readers, and how far these works changed the image of Hungary in the world ? In Lukácsy’s opinion the achievements in music are outstanding, but that is not surprising, since Hungarian music has been there on the cultural map since Ferenc Liszt. Bartók and Kodály were followed by composers like György Ligeti, György Kurtág, and the names of Sándor Balassa or Sándor Veress cannot be left out either. Lukácsy outlined a veritable galaxy of Hungarian conductors and virtuosos from Fritz Reiner to Antal Doráti, from the Hungarian String Quartet to Zoltán Kocsis, Dezső Bánki and Miklós Ferényi. Naturally, the new generation of Hungarian opera singers, which rocketed such artists into the limelight as Éva Marton, Veronika Kineses and Ilona Tokody, or László Polgár, and Dénes Gulyás could not be left unmentioned either. In the movie field Lukácsy sees the present situation as controversial. The international success of films by Zoltán Fábri, Károly Makk, or Miklós ■Jancsó called attention to the Hungarian cinema mostly amongst cinéasts. Although the general public knows the outstanding talent of a director, such as the Oscar-winner István Szabó, the fact that he is a Hungarian usually escapes their mind. In that according to Lukácsy thinks, the shortcomings of Hungarian P. R. are evident. He attributes the fact that Hungarian painting and sculpture rarely make their way into the great collections of the world, although many of them are by outstanding masters from Csontváry through Hippi-Rónai to Endre Bálint, principally to the same reason. The visible proof of that is that great Hungarian artists working abroad, such as Vasarely, Desiderius Orbán, or Imre Moholy-Nagy have their proper place in the world. One could refer to the striking success of the sculpture of Imre Varga, which prove that an artist living and working in Hungary can also achieve world success. It is generally acknowledged that the isolation of the Hungarian language hinders the presentation of Hungarian literary works abroad. Lukácsy describes the endeavours directed at breaking through this barrier, including the translation programme of the Hungarian PEN Club, which facilitates the translation of Hungarian prose and verse, the work of the publishing house Corvina and their publication of books in conjunction with foreign publishing houses. Naturally, it is not easy to change the basic situation, but recently a good few of the contemporary Hungarian poets and writers attracted the attention of readers all the way from Attila József to Tibor Déry, and from István Örkény to Péter Esterházy. I should like to give account of yet another article which appeared in the previous issue of our paper. György Halász visited Israel, and reported on his experiences. He revealed that about a quarterofamillion people there speak Hungarian as their first language and that their cultural life is considerable. There is an article in the previous issue about Dr Sándor Györkő Györkös, a compatriot in a faraway land. He has been living for decades in Las Palmas with his wife Judit Gálócsy born in Transylvania. Dr Györkő Györkös, besides being a humane healer of the sick, is - together with his wife—a dedicated guardian of the Hungarian language and culture on the Canary Islands, which do not appear so far away when someone is tied to the old country with such a deep devotion to the Hungarian heritage. In the Hungarian part of the present issue there is an article about an exhibition at the Budapest National Gallery, which gives an idea of Hungarian art around the year 1900. That was time when Hungarians kept up with the vanguard of Europe. Art nouveau style left its mark on that period, which produced a multitude of excellent works in Hungary also. The exhibition presents Hungarian Art Nouveau furniture made in the workshops of Endre Thék as well as maquettes of Ödön Lechner’s Museum of Applied Arts, and his Kecskemet water tower. Jewellery, paintings, statues, and models of buildings give picture of the art of the period between 1896 and 1914. which marked the triumph of this style, but was already pregnant with the seeds of the avantgarde, and of the neo-baroque style dominant in Hungary between the two world wars as well. ZOLTÁN HALÁSZ Elia Kövesházi Kalmár: Girl Leaning against an Arch One of the noted events of the Budapest Spring Festival was a concert conducted by Antal Doráti, with his wife, Ilse von Alpenheim as pianosoloist. Doráti is an exceptional man not only when wielding a conductor’s baton. Just as energy and poesy mix in his movements there, these qualities are also the strongest features of his personality. I had the chance to get acquainted with his perfectionism as well as his playfulness, at his rehearsals with the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra. On one of these occasions that went into the small hours he became indisposed, and everybody in the orchestra and the choir stayed back to anxiously awaiting the doctor’s verdict. Doráti did not cancel the rehearsal scheduled for the next day just because of some trouble with his heart beat — which he had experienced before. During the interval of that rehearsal he graciously answered some of my questions. “There are legends about your staying power. You give concerts in quick succession in many cities. Don’t your doctors tell you to lake it easy?” “Look, 1 seldom undertake as strenuous a programmes nowadays, as this present one in Budapest. When I am at home, in Switzerland, I usually wake early, spend the morning composing, take a nap after lunch and a good walk in the fresh air. Naturally, travelling is tiring, but making music is my living. Doctors? You know what they are like, if you give them half a chance. . .” “In your opinion where does the Budapest Spring Festival, which you have favoured a number of times with your presence amongst kindred festivals in the world?” “I must frankly admit that I know the programmes of the Budapest Spring Festival from the programme booklets only since, being one of the participants, I devote all my time for the preparation of the orchestra. Yet I can still chance an opinion, for I have gathered enough experience in my time. This is a new festival with a good programme, which must remain very goorl in the long run in order to become one of the great events. Just consider, the Salzburg Festival also needed some twenty or thirty years, until the world found it worth while to travel there for the occasion. It needed a long time to have the idea penetrate the public mind. Budapest may also achieve world fame for its festival given sufficiently high standards and perseverance.” “In any case, you are much more famous, than this festival. Are you moved by emotional reasons to give your name to this undertaking?” “The emotional reasons are primarily attached to my coming here. I always prepare for these visits with much love, I simply feel well here, because 1 am Hungarian. I am ready to appearhereat any time,if my schedule allows it, but it is not important whether they include me in the programme of the festival or not.” “Is the Hungarian language important to you? The reason I am asking this is that you have no accent, although you have been living abroad for 57 years.” “Why should 1 have an accent? 1 come to Hungary frequently, I read many Hungarian books, and, naturally, I correspond with my friends in Hungarian. The language was fed into me in the Fasor gimnázium and T still often dream in Hungarian.” “ We know of many instrumentalists, conductors, opera-singers of Hungarian origin. Are you in touch with one or another?” “Yes, we follow each others achievements and successes with keeninterest. In practice, however, our actual encounters are chance only since this business involves constant travelling. Thus for instance, when I conduct in London, György Solti is probably somewhere else and so on. The way we can give the best help to each other, including compatriots in Hungary also, lies in our performances. The world generally has a high opinion of Hungarian musicians and generally of Hungarian musical education.” “What could be the reason, then, that 29
