Mourby found no trouble in the Hungarian capital finding traces, past and present, of the composer and pianist Ferenc Liszt.
Hungary, together with the rest of the music-loving world, is celebrating the 200th anniversary of Liszt?s birth this year. The ?Liszt Year? will wind up on October 22, World Liszt Day, with a performance of the composer?s rarely performed Cristus oratorio in Budapest?s St. Stephen?s Basilica at the same time as the piece is sung in Beijing, Paris, Bayreuth and Seoul.
Mourby visited the venue where the 12-year-old Liszt played his first concert in Budapest, as well as the concert hall where he conducted his works together with his son-in-law Richard Wagner, the churches where he prayed and a reconstruction of the modest apartment where he spent the last years of his life after establishing the Music Academy. Among the newer tributes to Liszt, Mourby saw a locomotive decorated with the composer?s face and signature.
?When this summer of Lisztomania is over there will still be plenty for music lovers to go back for,? Mourby wrote. ?Gustav Mahler lived in Terez korut for three years while conductor of the National Opera. Zoltan Kodaly's grave is in Farkasreti Cemetery, as is the grave of Bartok.?
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / The Independent
