#1 (EMI CDM 5 65250 2)
"Cziffra had heard Rachmaninov interpret in concert the Second Sonata of Chopin. "No feeling" was his laconic comment." by Jean-Luc Perrot
【シフラ】
シフラは1921年、ハンガリーのブダペスト近郊に誕生。楽才は幼少から発揮され、すでに５歳で人々の求めに応じてリクエストされた主題から即興演奏をおこなっていたといいます。９歳になるとリスト音楽院に入学し、雑誌の表紙を飾り、ニュース映画の取材を受け、ラフマニノフからも認められるなどいっそう頭角をあらわしていきました。
しかし第２次世界大戦が始まってしばらくすると、シフラも従軍を余儀なくされ、ロシア戦線に配属されることとなります。ウクライナ近郊に駐留していたシフラは、ある夜、同盟国であるドイツ軍の将校のためにピアノを演奏しますが、数時間後には将校たちを乗せて来た機関車でロシア側に脱走をくわだてるものの失敗して捕まり、以後、紆余曲折を経て、ようやく1946年9月に自由の身となります。
戦後しばらくは、生活費を稼ぐためにバーで演奏していましたが、ソ連支配下のハンガリーではロシア系の演奏家にしかチャンスがなく、絶望したシフラは国外脱出を計画しますが、知人の密告により逮捕されてしまい、思想犯として１年半収監され、さらに１年半の強制労働を課せられるという悲惨な境遇に陥ります。
1953年の末にはなんとか釈放されたシフラですが、極度の重労働で失われた腕前を回復すべく、4ヶ月間に渡って特訓をおこない、1954年、本格的に活動を再開します。市民たちも以前のシフラをよく覚えており、復帰を心から歓迎、やがて噂を聞いた文化大臣のはからいで、正式に国家のピアニストとなったシフラは、演奏旅行やレコーディングに忙しい日々を送ることとなります。
1955年には、そんなシフラの活動が認められ、演奏家として初めて「リスト賞」を授与されるという栄誉にも浴します。
しかし翌1956年の10月22日、革命記念コンサートでバルトークのピアノ協奏曲第2番を演奏していたシフラは、コンサート終了後、聴衆が国歌を歌いながらホールをあとにし、やがて「ハンガリー動乱」へとつながる暴動を繰り広げてゆくのを目の当たりにし、自らも家族と共に国を出ることを決意、数万人の同胞と共に徒歩で国境を越え、胸まで水に浸かりながら川を渡ったりしてオーストリアへと逃れます。ほどなくソ連軍がブダペストに進攻し、自由を求めて武装した市民と衝突して市街戦を展開、戦闘終息後には過酷な弾圧をおこない、首相と軍事相を処刑します。シフラはこのときのことを忘れることができず、生涯二度とバルトークのピアノ協奏曲第2番を演奏することはありませんでした。
脱出後のシフラを救ったのは、パテ・マルコニー（フランスEMI）の社員でした。当時共産圏のレコードも熱心にチェックしていた同社は、シフラの録音したハンガリー狂詩曲を聴いて注目し、自社での録音をおこなうべくシフラを探し出して契約、1956年12月から1986年にいたる長い関係を開始することとなるのです。（ＨＭＶ）
http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/artist_Liszt-1811-1886_000000000020537/item_Etudes-d-execution-transcendante-Hungarian-Rhapsodies-Cziffra-2SACD-Hybrid-Limited_4989314
meloclassic MC 1014
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Cziffra didn't played with Paris Orchestra in concert.
"Certains encore sont restés improbables, comme les concertos de Liszt avec Georges Cziffra, rencontre limitée au studio, le pianiste n’ayant jamais joué en concert avec l’orchestre."
http://www.orchestredeparis.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=194&Itemid=65
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Cziffra received a job request in Conservatoire de Paris several times, but he rejected the offer.
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no further information
Glenn Gould 1957 March 13-14 (thu-fri)
Mitropoulos
Bach-Schoenberg: Chorale Prelude
Bach: Piano Concerto in D minor
Schoenberg: Piano Concerto
Mahler: Symphony No.10 (NY Premiere)
Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien
March 16 (sun)
Bach-Schoenberg: Two Chorale Preludes
Schoenberg: Piano Concerto
Mahler: Symphony No.10 (NY Premiere)
Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien
Verdi: Sicilian Vespes Overture
NYPO
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SOPHIA LOREN, 25, wandte sich an den international renommierten Pianisten Georgy Cziffra mit der Bitte, ihr Klavierunterricht zu erteilen. Der Virtuose lehnte ab.
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-43063448.html
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assegnati i "Viotti d'oro"
Sono quattro. quest'anno. I premi "Viotti d'oro" assegnati dalla "Societa del quartetto" de Vercelli: essi sono andati a pianista Georgy Cziffra, al basso Paolo Montarsolo, al coro della RAI di Torino. e al flautista Servino Gazzelloni.
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Argerich : " son jeu changeait à vue dès qu'il touchait Liszt "
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EMI/ERATO Box Set contains G. Cziffra Collection
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07
08 Bach/Busoni: Toccata and Fugue, BWV 565 / Private recording, 5.VIII.1965
09 Debussy: Pour le piano - 1 / Private recording, 5.VII.1974
10 Debussy: Pour le piano - 2 / Private recording, 5.VII.1974
11 Debussy: Pour le piano - 3 / Private recording, 5.VII.1974
+ Cziffra: Sur le pont d'Avignon / 1977, Auditorium Franz Liszt, Senlis
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1964 interview (which source?)
I was born in Budapest into a poor family of gypsy musicians, my father played in one of those orchestras you find all over Hungary. Their music creates, as it were , the tuneful background, the atmosphere so characteristic of the big cities in Central Europe.
At the beginning of the century a musician had no cause to complain of a lack of work, and my parents, then still very young, lived like true Bohemians. Their youthful vitality was spent in the joyous, wandering artists world of singing and dancing.
Before my arrival, just after the end of the first world war, the struggle for existence did not, I think, present any grave problems. But when, shortly after one another children came to share the one-room home, the rhythm of their lives was slowed down considerably. Going back in memory to my first conscious years I can well recall the underlying anxiety that could be sensed whenever the problem of our daily bread became acute.
Another recollection is the old piano that took up so much space in our single room. I seemed to spend my time as a toddler clinging to its brass handles and listening to my sisters banging away at the Viennese melodies which were then the fashion.
Late I was told how I undertook my own musical development. It seems I first picked out the melody with one finger, and then supplied the embellishments. After that came the variations, and finally the harmony.
Actually I was not allowed to do much "playing", owing to the noise I made, until one day my father, coming home unexpectedly, surprised at me at the piano. He was intensely interested, and made plans for me.
Just before my fifth birthday he took me with him to a fairground on the outskirts of the city to play for the public. However, though my tender age and small stature made some impression, the kind of music I was then able to produce could not compete with the more sensational attractions provided by the lion-tamers, the tightropewalkers and the wild animals of a circus that had pitched its tent there.
Later on, when I was about ten, I was sent to the Conservatoire, despite our ever-increasing financial difficulties at home. There I was given a thorough, if brief, musical training under Ferenczi.
When my training had to be broken off I faced the future not without optimism, though money was scarce and discrimination in Hungary at its height. No-one in any official capacity gave me encouragement or support. All the same I did enjoy a certain measure of popularity among the youth, and with a certain type of public. I composed a little, and now and again I had a chance to play the piano in some salon, or at a charity event, when I gave myself over to my old love improvising on a given theme.
It happened when I was thirteen. One day I happened to meet a rich merchant of our acquaintance, who was also a composer. "You know", he said this very respectable gentleman, "You know that I have composed some beautiful songs that are very highly esteemed?". I nodded, politely. "Well, now", he went on, "Vienna has commissioned me to write a full-length operetta, but alas, business places such heavy demands upon me that I find it impossible to finish the work within the stipulated time!" I made a vague gesture of sympathy. "And so..." The bombshell was so unexpected that it took some time to register. "And so I am going to ask you to do it!".
When I recovered a little I faltered: "How much time is there?". "Two months, but as you will see, the words are very interesting". "A full-length operetta! one and a half hours of music in two months'time... but that's impossible!". "Oh, come, I know you. I've seen some of your work, and I know your reputation as an improvisator. Come on, now, don't be afraid of a little work! And then, you know... you'll be well paid. Remember, it's me who is saying this!".
The dyed-in-the-wool businessman had stirred a tender chord! But even today, almost thirty years later, I have not forgotten the nightmare existence I led during those two months of forced labour! For twenty hours a day I slaved at the score in an agony of rear lest I should not have it ready in time. But with ten days still to go sixhundred neatly copied pages were handed to the delighted "composer". He sent them post-haste to Vienna and the cast went to work on them. The operetta was a huge success, but not a shadow of my name was visible, neither on the billposters nor on the published score, though I must say that I was, as promised, handsomely rewarded. I received from the hands of my patron in person a gold watch, a veritable wonder of decrepitude. It was, he assured me, an authentic family heirloom!
Later I was to learn that there are worse things. Came the war, and long years of military service. It was 1947 before I returned to my family in a state of mental and physical exhaustion. The first eight years of my married life had been spent almost entirely away from my wife Zuleika.
My father was dead, and my mother and sisters were without means of support. Two things were necessary: first I must keep my family alive, and secondly, despite everything I must regain my metier and technique-inshort, I must try to become the Cziffra of former days! I started practicing at the piano for six hours a day. At night, from sheer necessity, I played jazz in bars and cabarets until the small hours. I wasn't paid a salary- the tips I received from the customers formed my sole earnings. When I got home I snatched some sleep and then went back to the piano.
On October 22, 1956, the revolution broke out, and with my wife and son, after four days of uncertainty during which we tramped a hundred miles, we crossed the border. That is where our lives began.
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Avis aux Mélomanes
„WAS VIRTUOSEN KÖNNEN“ SW 3 / Samstag, 16. März um 21 Uhr „Was Virtuosen können“ oder „Geist und Ungeist pianistischer Selbstdarstellung“ nennt der Musikkritiker Dr. Joachim Kaiser diese Sendung aus der Reihe „Variationen über Werktreue“. Es spielen Martha Argerich, György Cziffra, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Nelson Freire, Ludwig Hoffmann, Vladimir Horowitz und, um die prominente Liste abzuschließen, Arturo Benedetti-Michelangeli (letzterer ohne Gewähr). UNE ÉTOILE PARMI LES VIOLONISTES RTB / Dimanche, 17 mars à 13.00 h. Isaac Stern et l’Orchestre du Concertgebouw d’Amsterdam placé sous la conduite de Bernard Haitink interprètent le concerto pour violon op. 64 en mi mineur de Felix Mendelssohn. INTERMEZZO ORTF 2 / Dimanche, 17 mars à 13.00 h. Patrice Fontanarosa (bien connu à Luxembourg) ainsi que Frédérique Fontanarosa jouent la Sonate en si bémol majeur K. 454 pour violon et piano de W. A. Mozart. UN GRAND CHEF: CELIBIDACHE ORTF 1 / Dimanche, 17 mars à 18.40 h. L’Orchestre National dirigé par Celibidache interprète la 5e symphonie de Schubert.
from newspaper Luxemburger Wort 15 March 1974
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at ORTF 2, 1973 dec 22 17.30, recital of Cziffra had broadcasted on TV for 1 hours
from newspaper Luxemburger Wort 21 December 1973