2015 Bartók-Pásztory Awards Presented

Photo: Liszt Academy / Sándor Benkő

Recognized as the most prestigious professional acknowledgement in the Hungarian classical music scene, the Bartók-Pásztory Awards were presented to the recipients at the Liszt Academy, as tradition has it, on the birthday of Béla Bartók. In his welcome speech, Minister of State for Culture Péter Hoppál pointed out that this year’s winners join an illustrious community of former awardees, including such luminaries as György Solti, György Czifra or Éva Marton. “We should be happy that Bartók was one of us. If we can hold onto his legacy, then we are on the right path,” Mr. Hoppál said.

Photo: Liszt Academy / Sándor Benkő

In his laudatory speech for Mátyás Antal, conductor Péter Erdei, a board member of the award committee, emphasized: 2015 marks a triple anniversary, because it was 30 years ago that the Hungarian State Choir, the predecessor of the Hungarian National Choir, was founded, and Mátyás Antal, who celebrates his 70^th birthday this year, ha been choral director of the choir for 25 years. In appraising the work of the awardee, Mr. Erdei considered it as a great achievement that not only did he bring the choir to a remarkably high standard of performance, but he was also able to maintain for a long time and even surpass that standard. As he recalled, Mátyás Antal played as a flautist in the Hungarian State Orchestra until 1990, when he took the position of chorus master in the Hungarian State Choir, while also teaching at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music up to this day.

Photo: Liszt Academy / Sándor Benkő

In his laudation of György Selmeczi, composer and award committee member Gyula Fekete underlined: György Selmeczi has always made great efforts to call attention to the value of Hungarian music across the borders, and vice versa, to bring the art of Hungarians living in Transylvania to the homeland audiences. The realization of this Bartokian idea, he opined, is a distinguishing feature of his oeuvre as a whole. Born in Cluj-Napoca in 1952, György Selmeczi is considered one of the most versatile musicians in Hungary: he is a pianist, conductor, teacher, opera director and composer. He has composed numerous solo and chamber music works, symphonies and operas, and he is also credited with writing a great many musical scores for film and theatre – as it has been enumerated by Mr. Fekete, who then went on to appraise György Selmeczi’s engagement in the “Négyek” (Group of Four) art community, including, besides him, composers Miklós Csemiczky, György Orbán and János Vajda. Speaking of his work in Cluj, Miskolc and Budapest, he underlined György Selmeczi’s role as the founder of the Miskolc New Music Workshop and the Budapest Chamber Opera.

Photo: Liszt Academy / Sándor Benkő

The awards were presented to the winners by Dr. Andrea Vigh, President of the Liszt Academy of Music and president of the board of the award committee, followed by a performance of György Selmeczi’s four-hand piano piece Triptichon in honorem Belae Bartók staged by the composer and Margit Kincses. Prior to the prize giving held at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, a wreath laying ceremony took place at the tomb of Béla Bartók in the Farkasréti cemetery in the morning. After the performance of the choir of the Béla Bartók Conservatory, László Vikárius commemorated the composer who was born on that day in 1881. The Bartók-Pásztory Award was founded in 1984, according to the last will and testament of pianist Ditta Pásztory, Bartók’s second wife, and is financed partly through the royalties. Presented each year on Béla Bartók’s birthday, the award, in accordance with Ditta Pásztory’s wishes, is endowed by a professional board of renowned professors of the Liszt Academy to those creative and performing artists or ensembles who have made a significant contribution to the development of Hungary’s musical life and the preservation of Béla Bartók’s legacy.