Ballads in Memory of János Arany & Zoltán Kodály A Zeneakadémia saját szervezésű programja

János Arany was born 200 years ago and died 135 years ago. Zoltán Kodály was born 135 years ago, and died 50 years ago. These milestones would in themselves merit a Kodály-Arany recital in 2017, although these two giants of Hungarian culture have far deeper connections than simply that Kodály was born in the year Arany died. In 1907, Kodály wrote to his future wife Emma Gruber: “[…] János Arany (my doppelgänger and forward projected shadow, or I am his shadow – it’s all the same.)” Kodály published the Arany collection on the 70th anniversary of the death of the poet and although he set to music only two Arany poems, he transposed numerous folk ballads into the world of composed music and the influence of Arany is clearly evident in them. The combined evening of the Hungarian Kodály Society, the Liszt Academy and Academy of Drama and Film provides a selection of these works, offering the audience a true synthesis of the arts thanks to projected slides by graphic artist György Buday.