Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 14:29, 5 September 2016

György Cziffra (in Hungarian form Cziffra György, Template:IPA-hu, also known as Georges Cziffra, 5 November 1921 – 15 January 1994), was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. He became a French citizen in 1968.

Cziffra is known for his recordings of works of Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin and Robert Schumann. Cziffra is also well known for his technically demanding arrangements of several orchestral works for the piano – among them, one of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee.

Early years

Georges Cziffra was born to a poor family in Budapest in 1921.

His earliest training in piano came from watching his sister practice. She had decided she was going to learn the piano after finding a job which allowed her to save the required amount of money for buying an upright piano. Georges, who was weak as a child, often watched his sister practice, and mimicked her. He learnt without sheet music, instead repeating and improvising tunes sung by his parents.

By the time he was five he attracted the attention of a travelling circus who hired him as the star of their show, and his improvisations (on tunes suggested by the audience) were successful. Some critics later called his involvement with the circus at an early age an example of his poor musical heritage and taste, while others called it evidence of remarkable talent.

Georges came to the attention of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest and was, at 9, the youngest student ever admitted. He was also admitted against the rules of the institution, which stipulated that in order to enter the candidate must have studied a full course of preliminary studies at a music school. He soon astonished his teachers who allowed him to attend the advanced masterclasses, normally reserved for adult students. This was run by István Thomán, a pupil of Franz Liszt and the teacher of Béla Bartók and Ernő Dohnányi.

Adult years

In 1942, at the age of 21, Georges was drafted into the Hungarian army which was allied with the Axis during the Second World War. He had just married his wife Soleilka, who was pregnant when he entered military training. Georges' unit was sent to the Russian front. At the frontier, Georges escaped by driving away on a locomotive, crossing the border where he was captured by Russian partisans and imprisoned underground for two years. He eventually escaped, was re-captured by the Russian army, then sent to the Western front as a tank commander of the new communist Hungarian regime. He was not demobilized until 1946 when he took up his career again, playing in cabarets and cafés.

An attempted escape from Soviet-dominated Hungary led to imprisonment and forced labour in the period 1950–1953. In 1956, on the eve of the Hungarian insurrection and after a stunning account of Bartók's second piano concerto (EMI References) Cziffra escaped with his wife (Soleilka – of Egyptian origin) and son to Vienna, where his recital at the Brahms Saal caused a sensation. News of this event reached the magazine The New Yorker. His Paris debut the following year caused a furore – his London debut at the Royal Festival Hall in Liszt's first concerto and Hungarian Fantasy similarly, an enraptured orchestra and audience applauding and cheering for over twenty minutes. His meteoric career continued with concerts throughout Europe and debuts at the Ravinia Festival (Grieg and Liszt concertos with Carl Schuricht) and Carnegie Hall New York with Thomas Schippers. He always performed with a large leather wristband, to support the ligaments of his wrist which were stretched while being tortured in prison, and also as a memento of his years in labour.

In Cannons and Flowers, his autobiography, Cziffra recounts his life story up until 1977, the year he founded the Cziffra Foundation, sited in the Saint Frambourg chapel in Senlis, Oise, which he bought and restored, with the aim of helping young musicians at the outset of their careers.

Cziffra's son, György Cziffra, Jr., was a professional conductor and participated in several concerts and recordings with his father. However, his promising career was cut short by his death in an apartment fire 1981 – said to have been accompanied by a suicide note – an event that sparked a progressively diminishing morale in his father. Cziffra never again performed or recorded with an orchestra, and some critics have commented that the severe emotional blow affected his playing quality. While some thought that his pianism deteriorated after the death of his son, others felt that his playing was deeper than before.

Georges Cziffra died in Senlis, France, aged 72, from a heart attack resulting from a series of complications from lung cancer due to smoking and alcohol.

References

• "Cannons and Flowers." Georges Cziffra. Translated by John Hornsby. Appian. 1996.

List of compositions

Original works

• Fantaisie roumaine, improvisation in gypsy style (1957)
• Improvisations on themes from Gioachino Rossini's William Tell (1956)
• Ouverture Solennelle
• Pastorale pour Gerbert
• Réminiscences de Johann Strauss (1956)

Arrangements and transcriptions

• Aram Khachaturian: Sabre Dance
• Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 19
• Franz von Vecsey: Valse triste
• Gioachino Rossini: La Danza
• Johann Strauss II: The Blue Danube, Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka
• Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (two versions), 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 21
• Manuel de Falla: Ritual Fire Dance
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumblebee

Discography

See

References

Notes

1. Morrison (n.d.).

Sources

• Morrison, Bryce (n.d.). "Cziffra, György " in Oxford Music Online, accessed 6 September 2016. (subscription required).

External links

• Cziffra plays Transcendental Etude No. 10 on YouTube
• Cziffra plays Gnomenreigen, by Franz Liszt on YouTube
• Cziffra plays Liszt's Totentanz on YouTube
• Cziffra plays Wagner-Liszt's Tannhauser on YouTube
• NY Times Obituary
• PianoRed on Cziffra (Spanish)
• Fondation Cziffra (French)
• Cziffra Fondation Vienna (German)

• 1921 births
• 1994 deaths
• 20th-century classical composers
• Franz Liszt Academy of Music alumni
• Deaths from lung cancer
• Hungarian classical composers
• Male classical composers
• Hungarian classical pianists
• Hungarian musicians
• Composers for piano
• 20th-century pianists