Magyar News, 1999. szeptember-2000. augusztus (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2000-04-01 / 8. szám
w» Friends of guitar music enjoyed an exciting treat on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of January. After a successful concert in Hartford, the Hungarian twin brothers, Peter and Zoltán Katona, presented an outstanding guitar concert at the Cole Auditorium of the Greenwich Public Library. They played traditional and modem classical music to a large and enthusiastic audience. The young Hungarian artists displayed versatility, precision and an awesome touch that more then doubled the musical impact of their selections. There seemed to be a wireless communication between the two artists which enabled them to carry on guitar dialogues and duets with subtlety and flashes of humor. Countless hours of practice and listening to each other was evident in the smooth, yet dynamics-filled execution of their challenging twohour program. They opened with four works by Johann Kasper Merty, then played a six part Suite by George Frederic Handel. Following the intermission they performed a very modern piece by Leo Brouwer, and pieces by Isaac Albening. In between they presented three works by the Hungarian Béla Bartók, one being the Evening in Transylvania (Este a Székelyeknél). Though appearing to be still in their twenties, the Katona brothers are clearly “veteran musicians.” Following study at the Béla Bartók Conservatoiy in Budapest, they continued refining their talents at the Kassel Academy of Music and Frankfurt Musikhochschule in germany, and to Royal Academy of Music in London. They made recordings in Budapest and in Amsterdam. In 1998 they won the Nathan Wedeen Award at the U.S. Concert Artists Guild Competition. In March of this year the Katona brothers will make their debut at the Carnegie Hall, and they will also have a concert at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, D.C. For more information you may contact the Connecticut Classical Guitar Society in Hartford. Telephone 1-860-249-7041. The Society organizes monthly concerts, master classes and a large variety of other guitar-related programs. It is expanding from the Hartford region to the southern part of the state. The Katona twins gave the first concert in this series. James Winkleman 8iííííál<ÍÍSÍSí!!a«M<f^^ THE BUDAPEST SPORT COMPLEX DEMOLISHED BY HUGE FIRE The sporting people of Budapest suffered a great loss tins winter. The Budapest Sport Csarnok, a sport complex next to the big Stadium in an early morning hour burst into flame demolishing most of the building. Whatever was left also has to be taken dowa The building was designed by István Kiss, architect and was erected by 1982 and opened on February 12. The main arena seated 12,000 people and the playfield was close to a thousand square feet. At the beginning of December last year with 420 booths filling up the arena a huge Christmas fair took place. By the 17th of December all this turned to ashes. Col. János Kovács, commander of the fire department of Budapest, said that he never experienced such a big fire throughout his entire career. In the sport complex many internationally important events occured. It housed 13 World Championships, 17 European Championships. Already in 1982 the Aerial view of the Sportpark in Budapest. The upper part of the photo shows the Stadium, in the middle the athlethic grounds and track. In the forground the round building is the Budapest Sport Csarnok, the sport complex that burned down at the end of December last year. Women’s Basketball competition was an outstanding event, followed by skating and athletic World championship, also on international level wrestlers, boxers, fencers and gymnastics competed here. It was the place for domestic sport-fans go to. It was the place for political and cultural events. On its stage one could find American stars like Tina Turner, , Santana, Elton John, Chuck Berry, the illusionist David Copperfield, also from our Connecticut area Dave Brubeck. Some of the basic concrete structure is standing; probably not good enough to consider it suitable for modification and rebuilding. It will take time to figure out the future of the area. Unfortunately they had no insurance on the establishment. This is a leftover from the previous era when the government owned and handled everything. This practice hasn’t ben brought up to date and many institutions are in the same boat. It seems like none of the national museums have any insurance on their expensive and irreplaceable collections or the buildings they are housed in. As somebody from the Applied Arts Museum said, they hardly have enough money to pay for the water and electricity. The only insurance they have, because it is occasional and a smaller size, is for pieces that are sent to outside exhibits or travelling shows. J.F.B. Page 6 Page 7
