Archive program series

The eastern bloc club festival. For the seventh year running, the Budapest Showcase Hub, or BUSH, is bringing together music industry representatives and music lovers to find out what the heartbeat of the region is beating to, and what the latest and most interesting trends and phenomena are in the international music scene. Between 19 and 21 October, performers from twelve countries will fill the clubs of Budapest with music, and the professional conference – which will once again be hosted by the Fészek Club – will bring together the best professionals from the international and national scenes.

A Müpa Budapest and BUSH Festival Ltd. joint programme as part of the Liszt Festival.

I have deliberately left the words ‘music history’ out of the title. Although, of course, in my own case it is the basis of everything: my studies and more than 40 years of teaching. For me, however, music history is increasingly becoming a tool to see and, above all, to hear behind all great music and, inspired by the music, to imagine things that may or may not be true, but which enhance the experience of the encounter.

Subjective? Clearly it is: subjective fantasy in moments that only this deep and soaring art can create. I invoke words to accompany music, but the point lies in the gestures and in the experience of listening to music together. My aim is to draw the mysticism of music into an educational ritual. Those who want to learn from it are able to, of course, but the journey itself is more important, the thing that leads to the music and through it to its secrets. Let's slow down time together for a fleeting yet timeless hour.

Language: hungarian

It is the eighth time this year that the György Cziffra Festival, founded by the Kossuth Award-winning pianist, János Balázs, has taken place as a tribute to the eponymous piano genius. The festival is a true representative of Liszt's legacy, one of whose most iconic interpreters was György Cziffra in the 20th century. Performers are created by tunes and sounds, and the audience and the artist become united hearing the masterpieces. From year to year, the festival's programme is made more and more colourful by symphonic and chamber music concerts, exhibitions, poem recitals, café and gipsy music, academic seminars and kids' activities. The festival and György Cziffra's legacy draw public attention to Hungary's cultural diversity, significant artists and young talents.

Olivier Messiaen is undoubtedly one of the most original and influential composers of the last century, and as a nature and bird lover, he has used a variety of bird songs in his works. His monumental Catalogue of Birds is one of the largest-scale keyboard compositions in the history of music, and few people around the world have attempted a complete performance of it in a single evening. One of these exceptions is the pianist László Borbély, who is performing the composition in its entirety for the first time in Hungary. The whole work will be performed in three parts, and will include a lecture by music historian Gergely Fazekas and ornithologist Zoltán Orbán.

Periodically sharing curatorial tasks with an artist has become a tradition for the House of Music Hungary, gifting them the opportunity to present their musical and broader artistic activities and their social engagement in a series of weekend-long events. The fourth curatorial weekend will focus on one of the most famous Hungarian musicians in the world, István Várdai. Audiences will not only meet the cellist on stage, but will also gain an insight into Várdai's work as a teacher and instrument developer.

No summer in the House of Music would be complete without its own mini-festival – launched for 2023, and the first stop in the inaugural year of the Festival of Distant Cultures: South America. What does this mean? First and foremost, there will be lashings of irresistibly good music, hot vibes and dance. And still in the first and foremost category, two legendary bands from South America will be coming to Budapest. On Saturday (15 July), Los Wembler's de Iquitos, a psychedelic outfit that has been a staple of Peruvian chicha since the 1970s, and on Sunday (16 July), Cimarrón, one of the mainstays of Colombian yoropo, will be dancing for us. If that were not enough, there is also a guarantee of big smiles and joyful Latin music, from salsa to cumbia, with Los Orangutantes, Los Andinos, Stefania Allstars (Salsa in the Park), Lituma and DJ Gandharva & Von Yodi together.