LISZT AND BARTOK

Press, Volume C, Issue 29520, 23 May 1961, Page 12

LISZT AND BARTOK

Festival In Budapest

The music festival to be held in Budapest this year is rare in that it honours two great composers, both of them Hungarian—Frans Liszt on the occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his birth, and Bela Bertok, who was born 80 years ago.

Of Liszt, Bartok wrote that his works “exercised a more fertile Influence on the gen eration following him than did Wagner’s:” and of Bartok. another great Hungarian composer, Zoltan Kodaly, has said that he was "one of those people who . left a different world from that which they had found.”

Tire festival year will offer many different occasions for the public to hear the works of the two masters and to compare them. Both composers started their career as virtuoso pianists, and one of the principal events of the year will be an international piano contest to be held in Budapest from September 24 to October 9.

Open to pianists of all nationalities, born between January 1. 1929. and January 1. 1946. the contest will consist of a selection of works which make special demands on technique and interpretation. They include, among others. Liszt's Consolation in D Flat Major No. 3. Bartok’s Suite and the Sonata in G. Minor by Liszt. The latter work was performed by Bartok at his first public concert given in Budapest in 1901.

Another important event which will take place during the festival year is the second Hungarian Conference of Musicology, which will be de. voted to the studv of l.iszt and Bartok.— (U.N.E.S.C.O.i