László Baranyay solo recital A Zeneakadémia saját szervezésű programja

László Baranyay, professor at the Liszt Academy for more than four decades, one of the great Hungarian pianists and a person with a remarkable educational background, is 70. His art draws on the legacy of Bartók and Russian pianistic traditions. He graduated under the guidance of Imre Ungár, himself a student of István Thomán, Bartók’s professor. In the course of his years spent in Moscow, he studied with the son of Heinrich Neuhaus. Baranyay honed his art with numerous other great artists of the 20th century such as György Sebők, Annie Fischer, András Mihály and Géza Anda. “I have had a close connection with turn-of-the-century French music from my secondary school days, delighting ever since to listen to, play and teach works by Ravel and Debussy,” the pianist says about the programme. “In my eyes there is a huge difference between these two composers: Debussy is more colourful and has a richer emotional range, Ravel is leaner yet his effects are unbelievably multifaceted – the music of both masters is extremely attractive. Ravel paid his respects to the great French Baroque predecessors with an entire cycle (Le tombeau de Couperin), and Debussy with his work Hommage à Rameau, and this is where the idea arose of devoting an entire evening to works by the four composers.”