Magyar News, 1998. szeptember-1999. augusztus (9. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1999-01-01 / 5. szám
Hungary's contribution to music history and performance is well documented and varied. The country has produced many renowned conductors past and present, among them Antal Dorati, Sir George Solti, Eugene Ormandy and George Szell. Singers and instrumentalists bom in Hungary are among the world's top virtuosi: Eva Marton, Andrea Rost and András Schiff, among others. In the mid-to-late nineteenth century, Franz Liszt acquired an unequaled reputation for dazzling piano performances and groundbreaking compositions, the most significant being the symphonic tone poem. Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, in addition to composing, also gained fame as the first prominent ethnomusicologists. They were pioneers in searching for and recording authentic folk music in its native enviromnent and using such music as source material in their compositions. Bartók was a concert pianist before he began focusing his efforts on composing. Kodály's method of music pedagogy is used worldwide. It is therefore not surprising that a wealth of important personal relics, manuscripts, musical instruments and documents belonging to these three composers can be found in their respective memorial museums in Budapest. A fourth music site in Budapest also worth visiting is the Museum of Music History. The Franz Liszt Memorial House has acquired recognition for a number of reasons. Simply stated, Liszt was a fascinating personality and an accomplished composer, teacher and pianist, a person to whom others were drawn. He was unquestionably the most famous Hungarian musician of his time due to his international reputation as a pianist, his place among the cultural and musical elite of Europe and having spent much of his life outside of Hungary, chiefly in Weimar, Paris and Rome. His reputation was already established before the construction of the Liszt Music Academy, now the Liszt Memorial House. The Liszt Music Academy moved operations to the famous and larger Zeneakadémia (Music Academy) in 1907. The Liszt Memorial House has also garnered acclaim for its furniture, Renaissance Revival style and furnishings, meriting an article in the January 1996 issue of Architectural Digest. In January 1881 Liszt wrote, "My new lodging is decorated in perfect taste. Some ten ladies have decorated my armchairs with beautiful embroidery, in such magnificence that they are worthy even of a prince's palace." The Liszt Memorial House opened in 1986, the 100th anniversary of the composer's death. The museum collects all materials relating to him. Esoteric personal possessions such as his gloves and walking stick (the latter a gift from Pope Pius IX) and a bronze replica of his right hand are on exhibit. Well-known portraits of Liszt by leading artists of the day adorn the walls. The most prominent articles are two of Liszt's pianos. One is a Chickering made in Boston in 1867 that won a gold medal at the Paris World Exhibition, the other a Bösendorfer used during the last years of his life. Perhaps the most important item is the voluminous collection of musical scores and correspondence. The museum also serves as a research center and performance venue. The Franz Liszt Society, the International Kodály Society and certain departments of the Academy of Music are housed here. The Franz Liszt Chamber Room, also known as the Old Academy of Music, hosts chamber music concerts, the Liszt Memorial House is located on 35 Vörösmarty út. The Vörösmarty út stop on the yellow Metro line will put the reader in easy walking distance. An illustrated guide to the museum in Hungarian is available for a nominal fee. The Béla Bartók Memorial House was Bartók's last home in Hungary. The composer lived here from 1932 to 1940, the year he left for the United States, where he died in 1945. When Bartók and his wife, Ditta Pásztory, first looked at the house their immediate joint opinion was favorable regarding its purchase. The composer took frequent walks in the quiet neighborhood. "The house was set in a garden and large and small trees and shrubs grew all around the edges of the garden," wrote Pasztory in 1932. Bartók's small piano room was on the upper floor and a folk music study was also used as a bedroom. The composer would sunbathe and work on the balcony of this room. Numerous important events in Bartók's career occurred during his years here. Two of his monumental publications on folk music were written at this time, and Above left: Mihály Munkácsy's painting of Franz Liszt in 1886. Left: The Franz Liszt Memorial House. It used to be the Budapest Music Academy and Liszt lived on the second floor in 1879. Right: Béla Bartók Memorial House on Csalán utca. Bartók left this house in 1940 to emigrate to the United States. His original plan was to return. Page 3
