Just as flower petals – although beautiful on their own – show their value together by forming a flower cup, so come individual musical performances together to form a recital. With this analogy began the 5th student recital of Hangrózsa Zongoraiskola on 4th June 2016, at 11 am at Béla Bartók Memorial House. The event was crowned by János Balázs concert pianist awarded with Franz Liszt and Junior Prima Prize.
The recital was opened by Balázs Juhász piano teacher, founder of Hangrózsa Piano School with a short welcome where in addition to the analogy above he talked about the goals and events of his school. The performance of child and adult students filled two terms, and during the break there was also the opportunity to visit the museum. After the recital, the performers received a certificate recognizing their work. Most of the piano schools used in Hungary were presented in the program: the official course material of music schools, Piano ABC by Lajos Papp and The Friendly Piano School by Ágnes Lakos. Some pieces from the booklets by Béla Bartók: For Children in which he covered Hungarian and Slovakian folksongs and Microcosmos written for his son Péter. Some pieces from the volumes of piano schools used in the USA were also played: from Alfred's Basic Piano Library and Faber's Piano Adventures. Advanced students performed with a more serious program, so a classical sonata movement was also played, the first movement of Joseph Haydn's sonata in D major, which was given the catchy name "Cock". In addition to the classical pieces, the recital also included pop music, one of Paul McCartney's popular songs, Michelle, was performed on vocice with piano accompaniment.
After the students' performance, their teacher Balázs Juhász introduced himself on the piano with two works by Franz Liszt. One of the opuses is the fourth piece of Consolations series, where Liszt sings in a lyrical voice that evokes Chopin, and the other was a concert etude, Waldesrauschen.
Pianist János Balázs played two pieces, two paraphrases. A paraphrase is a free version of transcription, where a completely new work is created based on the themes and melodies of the original work. One of them was Rigoletto Paraphrase by Franz Lisz, which covers the melodies of Verdi's popular opera. The other was a contemporary piece of music by László Dubrovay, Paraphrase, which the author based on his own earlier work, the ballet "Faust, the damned".
"Educating young people is a very big responsibility..."
János Balázs
After the piano recital, János Balázs greeted the performers and the audience verbally. He highlighted the importance of music education, as this area is important not only for those who become artists and will later make this their profession, but also for those who play instruments as a hobby and will only be art lovers, as they form the core of the concert-going, music-savvy audience. He thanked the parents for "taking their child to piano lessons instead of anything else", since in today's world, time could easily be wasted. He congratulated the students for their preparation, for their beautiful performances and for taking on the role on stage, and wished them further success.
"Who learns music will interpret culture in a completely different way"
János Balázs
