...a country (Hungary) whose population, even today, is barely over ten million has produced so many musicians and so much outstanding music. I am grateful for having been born and trained there.

Sir Georg Solti

Reminiscence and passing are the central themes of this year's Kamara.hu programme series

22 September 2021

Marcel Proust’s grand novel entitled “In Search of Lost Time” is the theme of the Kamara.hu festival, organized by artistic directors Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon. Géza Anda will be commemorated at the gala event of the festival and separately at the French Institute in September.

If music is the art of the moment and the past, then performing arts is the act of remembrance. It is a unique and singular rendition of a piece by a composer, of an era, a style and the composer. This year, the artistic directors of kamara.hu, Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon, have chosen the first volume of the world-famous novel by the French writer Marcel Proust “In Search of Lost Time,” – an iconic literary work of remembrance - as the focus of the Liszt Academy’s chamber music festival taking place between November 18-21. Proust, an extremely knowledgeable person in fine arts, was a fan of the music of Fauré, Franck and Beethoven; naturally, these composers will all be featured in the programme of the festival. In addition, organizers will commemorate pianist Géza Anda, who was born a hundred years ago, with a concert consisting of Mozart piano concertos at the gala event.

In connection with the aforementioned centenary, the French Institute will pay tribute to the artist with a film screening, a concert and a poster exhibition on September 24. There will be a screening of “Géza Anda - Pianist, conductor, teacher,” a black and white Swiss documentary about the life and work of the artist, which counts as a real curiosity. The 53-minute documentary, produced in 1966 and directed by Richard Leacock and Rolf Liebermann, will be screened in English, German, Italian and Hungarian from 6:30 pm.  Afterwards, Dénes Várjon, the only Hungarian winner of the Géza Anda piano competition held every three years in Zurich, will give a short concert from 7:30 pm.  Five retro-style posters were also produced for the anniversary, which will be exhibited for the first time in Hungary in the foyer of the French Institute's screening room; the posters feature texts about the life of Géza Anda and quotations from the artist.

The detailed programme of the festival, including the names of participating artists as well as information about ticket purchases is available on the website of the Liszt Academy on this link.