The Youth in the Limelight

Pristina-based Chopin PianoFEST’s young performers in Budapest

Hegyvidék Cultural SalonSaturday, 15 October 2022, 6 pm.

 

One of the participants of the international collaboration projects of the György Cziffra Memorial Year is  the Kosovo-based Chopin PianoFEST, an active cooperator of the Hungarian music scene. The over a decade-long event-series taking place in Pristina hosts worldclass artists from year to year, and one of its missions coincides with György Cziffra’s heartfelt passion: supporting young talent. This is how the György Cziffra Memorial Year and the Chopin PianoFEST joined forces based on similar goals and mission. Within the the joined project, two concerts and masterclasses were held in Pristina with such performers as Gergely Kovács (piano), Ádám Balogh (piano), Ádám Banda (violin). In October, the collaboration continues with the concerts of the award-winning artists of the Chopin PianoFEST, Andi Duraku (piano) and Rron Bakalli (violin) in the Hegyvidék Cultural Salon in Budapest.

 

Andi Duraku’s career set off in Gjakova, the seven largest city in Kosovo and continued at the University of Pristina. Now, though,the concert halls of Germany, Switzerland, France and Tukey all feature among the venues conquered by the young pianist. He has won numerous European competitions, such as the Chopin Piano Competition, has taken to the stage as the soloist of the Berlin Philharmonic and has attended the masterclasses of such pianists as Dmitry Bashkirov and István Lajkó. Within the framework of Cziffra100, he will prove his genius with virtuoso pieces: the Romantic mysterious Scriabin’s two etudes, one of which is a piece from his Op. 8 series, especially challening for the left hand, and Liszt’s Tarantella evoking Venice and Naples. 

 

In the rest of the programme, another Gjakova-born young fellow-musican joins Duraku with a similarly trimphant career behind him: the violinist Rron Bakalli. The two play two important violin and piano compositions from the Romantic Period: Grieg’s Sonata No. 3 and Saint-Saëns’s masterpiece dedicated to Sarasate. The core of the programme is Hollywood’s composer Korngold’s incidental music written by the young master for the Burgtheatre in Vienna for its 1918-production of Much Ado about Nothing

 

The Hungarian Government celebrates the 100th anniversary of the worldwide celebrated Hungarian pianist György Cziffra's birthday within the framework of an official Memorial Year. UNESCO also lists the jubilee as a recommended anniversary.The Memorial Year is sponsored by the Prime Minister’s Office, theGábor Bethlen Fund and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Artistic Director of the  Cziffra György Memorial Year is the pianist János Balázs. 

 

Saturday, 15 October 2022, 6 pm

Hegyvidék Cultural Salon

The Youth in the Limelight

Recital given by the performers of the Chopin PianoFEST, Pristina

Andi Duraku (pianoand Rron Bakalli (violin)

(Joint concert of the Cziffra Memorial Year, the Chopin PianoFEST, MOMkult and the Hegyvidék Cultural Salon)

Programme:

ScriabinTwo etudes (C-sharp minor, op. 2/1, G-sharp minor, op. 8/9) (Andi Duraku  piano),

Grieg: Sonata for Violin and Piano in C minor, op.11. (Andi Duraku – piano, Rron Bakalli – violin),

Korngold: “Much Ado about Nothing” Suite for Violin and Piano, Op.11 (Andi Duraku – piano, Rron Bakalli – violin),

Liszt: Tarantella (Andi Duraku  piano),

Mendelssohn: Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, op. 28. (Andi Duraku – piano, Rron Bakalli – violin)