The festival - perhaps Hungary's biggest programme of cultural events - started in 1981. Its history can be neatly divided into three periods, the first starting with its inception and ending at the time of the fall of Communism. The centenaries of the births of the famous Hungarian composers Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály were the themes for the festival's first two years. Then the festival was well known for drawing famous Hungarian musicians who lived abroad for performances. Among them were the conductor Antal Doráti and the pianists Georges Cziffra, Tamás Vásáry and Peter Frankl, as well as the painter Victor Vasarely and the sculptor Amerigo Tot.
The festival's second "phase" ran from 1991 until 1996, when the local council of Budapest established the Festival Centre Public Benefit Company under the direction of Zsófia Zimányi. Since then, the festival has drawn increasingly large numbers of visitors to see performances by such world-renowned performers as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Claudio Abbado, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gidon Kremer, Kiri Te Kanava and Nigel Kennedy.
The Budapest Spring Festival is among the top 50 festivals in the world, according to a list compiled by a group of researchers at a University in the Netherlands. Three years ago, the festival was awarded the European Culture Prize by KulturForum Europa, a foundation established by former German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher. KulturForum Europa commended the festival for using the arts to build a bridge between East and West.
This year's Budapest Spring Festival is focusing on several themes, among them Hungary's Renaissance Year 2008 and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Puccini.
Source: Fidelio.hu
