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» Katalin Csillagh Concert
Wednesday, 8 September 2010 13:10
Programme:
L. van Beethoven: Seven Bagatelles Op.33
L. van Beethoven: Fantasy Op.77
Katalin Csillagh, pianist At the Liszt Ferenc University of Music she studied piano and graduated with top honours in 2005. In 2001 she was awarded a two-year scholarship to the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. She is to complete her post-graduate studies under Imre Rohmann at the Mozarteum in Salzburg in 2008. Her talent has been acknowledged by first prizes at several international competitions. In
2007 she won first prizes at the chamber music competition of the Beethoven Piano
Society of Europe in London and the international piano competition of EPTA (European Piano Teachers Association London). She has had concerts in Vienna, London, Toronto, Salzburg, Nice and several European festivals. Her recordings have been played by the Hungarian Radio and Television. Her solo CD
“Sonatas” (SW Consult, 2000) and her chamber music CD “Shades of Bach” with János
Vázsonyi (BMC, 2001) have scored great success in several countries. Her new CD
including Chopin 24 Preuldes and Improvistions was released in 2008.
These 50 minute recitals are free with a suggested donation of £3
St James's, Piccadilly, 197 Piccadilly, London, United Kingdom
» Thames Festival
Saturday, 11 September 2010 All Day
The Mayor's Thames Festival takes place annually in mid-September and the Hungarian Cultural Centre will be there also. Come and meet the “Busos” and a ceramic artist to experience Hungarian traditions. For one week men dress up as “Busos” in the village of Mohacs, in Southern Hungary every year, they shed their everyday identities to become a fertility symbol that chases away the gloom of winter and welcomes the advent of spring. A "Buso" is a rather scary-looking masked creature, with sheepskin coat and canvas leggings but surely they will be friendly enough to pose for pictures with Londoners. A skilled ceramic artist will be showing you how the world famous Zsolnay porcelain is painted by hand in Pécs the European Capital of Culture in 2010. Come and find our tent at the river Thames!
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» The Earth’s Lover
Thursday, 16 September 2010 19:00
The Earth’s Lover was based on a novel by Gizella Dénes and it follows the path of Vilmos Zsolnay, the world-famous master ceramicist until he finds his real vocation. We get insight into his job as a shop assistant, then the way he meets a mysterious Italian ceramicist who turns up in Pécs. Due to his influence, the young Vilmos Zsolnay starts to toy with the idea of making porcelain and everything else in his life springs from this thought: he meets his great love and is then given the recipe for the new ceramics by the old Italian. But the road to achieve his goal is not easy: friendships, love affairs, betrayals and tragedies mark the years before his dream can come true.
The film is set at the end of the 19th century in Pécs, and the makers’ intention was to also show the city’s values on film. The costumes by Mariann Wieber give a taste of the magnificent fashion of the age.
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» New musical colours – introducing Szabolcs Zempléni (horn) and Péter Nagy (piano)
Monday, 20 September 2010 19:00
Robert Schumann : Three Romances Op.94
Frédérik Chopin and Alexander Scriabin: Preludes
Robert Schumann: Adagio and Allegro Op.70
Intermission
Jean Francaix: Divertimento
Francis Poulenc: Elegie for horn and piano - in memoriam Dennis Brain
Volker David Kirchner: Tre Poemi
An avid chamber musician, Zempléni has worked with partners such as Andrej Bielow, Wassilij Lobanov, Christian Zacharias, Dénes Várjon, András Keller and the Atos trio.
Péter Nagy (piano) was born in 1960. Displaying outstanding musical gifts, he was admitted to the Special School for Young Talents of the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music at the age of 8. His international career began in 1977, with his successful performances in Finland, Yugoslavia, and Salzburg and he has given recitals in France, Slovakia, Germany, Australia and Japan since then. He has also appeared as a soloist with renowned ensembles. As a chamber musician, he has performed at major festivals, among others, in Aix-en-Provence, Athens, Davos, Eisenach, Edinburgh, Helsinki, and the Marlboro Music Festival.
Péter Nagy works frequently with Greek violinist, Leonidas Kavakos. The duo has received invitations for tours in the USA, Spain, Greece, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia and Hungary. In the recent years Nagy has been collaborating with violist Kim Kashkashian, giving duo recitals in Europe and in the United States. He has made several recordings for Hungaroton, Delos, Naxos, BIS and ECM labels.
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» Bolla Quartet
Friday, 24 September 2010 19:30
Gábor Bolla (tenor-sax) is only 21 but an incredible talent who has already made it to the semi-finals of the World Saxophone Competition both at the 2003 Montreux- and at the 2004 London Jazz Festival. He is the guy black American tenor-giant, David Murray jammed with for two hours during his stay in Budapest. His quartet won First Prize and the audience vote at the Avignon Jazz Festival in 2005. In November 2008 at the London Jazz Festival, alongside with three top British sax-players (Peter King, Mornington Lockett and Julien Siegel), he made up the Saxophone Summit where his performance elicited the following response from the influential jazz critic, Jack Massarik of the Evening Standard: “...young Bolla revealed himself a tenorman of enviable technique, solid jazz feel and remarkable maturity. His tone was broad and his ideas fluent in the style that reflected Coltrane and earlier masters such as Dexter Gordon.”
Róbert Szakcsi Lakatos (piano) totally knocked out a London audience (including ex-Genesis rock-guitar ace, Steve Hackett and TV personality, Anna Ford) in 2004 and the following year he was awarded the Best Soloist price at the same Avignon Jazz Festival where the quartet came top. Robi comes from a long line of dazzling Roma Gypsy musicians, but is too talented to live in their shadow. He is equally at home in classical music having won in 1996 the first prize at the Bach piano competition organized by Radio Basel in Switzerland. A few years later he walked away once more with the first prize from the jazz solo piano competition at Montreux. His solo- and trio albums are now huge sellers in Japan.
György Orbán is one of the most original young bassists in Hungary, a country teaming with virtuosos on his instrument. He first caught public attention as a member of the legendary Szakcsi New Gypsy Jazz outfit.
The drums will be looked after by András Mohay, one of the founding members of the Bolla Quartet and, due to his amazing skill, he is one of the two drummers of the new generation with whom everyone wants to play. He is featured in so many outfits that we have frankly lost count of his current affiliations. He is a brilliant player and has a comprehensive knowledge of jazz history that shines through his otherwise totally contemporary style.
» TREASURES FROM BUDAPEST: EUROPEAN MASTERPIECES FROM LEONARDO TO SCHIELE
Saturday, 25 September 2010
Budapest is one of Europe's cultural gems. The Hungarian capital has many beautiful places of interest, including the Museum of Fine Arts and the Hungarian National Gallery. Both have loaned work for this exhibition of European masterpieces at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, which runs from 25th September until 12th December 2010.
The exhibition will feature over 200 works and will include paintings, drawings and sculpture from the early Renaissance to the twentieth century. Selected works by artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, El Greco, Rubens, Goya, Manet, Monet, Schiele, Gauguin and Picasso will be on display, many of which have not previously been shown in the UK. The exhibition comprises works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, with additional key loans from the Hungarian National Gallery. The Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest houses the state collection of international art works in Hungary and includes the Esterházy collection, acquired by the Hungarian state in 1871. The collection began in the seventeenth century but expanded during the rule of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy (1765 – 1833) who was responsible for developing the fine collection of Old Master paintings and drawings that will be showcased in the exhibition. One of the highlights of the exhibition will be Raphael's Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist, 1508 (known as The Esterházy Madonna).
Treasures from Budapest: European Masterpieces from Leonardo to Schiele will also include still lives, landscapes and portraits by some of Europe’s finest artists, including works by Royal Academicians Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Constable and Angelica Kauffmann. The exhibition will conclude with a showcase of twentieth century artists including Monet, Chagall, Picasso and Schiele alongside works by Hungarian artists such as Károly Ferenczy and József Rippl-Rónai.
The exhibition has been curated by Professor David Ekserdjian, with Joanna Norman from the Royal Academy of Arts and will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, which will provide a forum for the exploration of a number of recent discoveries about particular works in the collection.
The exhibition, in the presence of the artist, will be officialy launched by Mr Ferenc Csak, Director of the Hungarian National Gallery.
The first title of Csaba Fürjesi’s latest cycle invited its viewers to experience profane myths. Its reception unveiled the impulses from our urban world as experienced by the artist in the hidden resonance behind the pictures.
Mythical phases of profane spectacles are poured into a calligraphic framework by the artist in order to move the eternal humane in today’s urban dweller through colour an associative fitment. Each optical element of this art is to serve such a visual expression that poses subtle questions to the viewer in such a way that through a gripping journey into the scenery he is to experience from the beginning the creative process with its hardship and revelations.
The well-known motives as well as parts of objects, somewhat dreamlike people and signalling animals are all opening a window onto a „wonderland” where one would happily follow one Alice or another.
Those surprised by the emotional world opened within them will be able to start building their individual – contemporary and private – language of symbols based on the creator’s interpretations shared through the collection of these paintings.
This unique artist defines the universal experiences of our age through his personal style. The creation of myth summarizes and streams everyday things into the esthetical sphere.
By László Sánta
Born in Salgotarjan, 1969, Csaba Fürjesi is an established artist with several art degrees, solo exhibitions and countless awards. His work also includes performances and public works. His paintings are featured in national and international collections including the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest.
