Cziffra's Improvisation
Cziffra
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Browse piano sheets by Cziffra on Zen Virtual Piano. Interlude says Cziffra believed that technical mastery should never be displayed for its own sake but made subservient to a powerful emotional intellect and a cultured mind. He never accepted praise for his technique, and sharply reproached admirers: “I don’t care about technique. What you call technique is simply an expression of feeling.” In his autobiography he described how, while giving himself over completely to the moment of inspiration, he tried to keep a discipline of his thoughts on the next two or three measures so that his hands could follow the path of his vision. A pianist who called technique an expression of feeling, and who kept his thoughts disciplined on the next two or three measures while improvising, suggests an improviser balancing feeling and careful attention. György Cziffra was born in a shantytown called Angels Court on the outskirts of Budapest, into a family of Gypsy musicians, and his father, György Cziffra Snr, played the cimbalom. AllMusic says he learned piano by watching an older sister’s lessons, and by the age of five he was improvising requests from the audience at a circus. At ten he was sent to the conservatory in Budapest, where he was able to stay only briefly, taking lessons from György Ferenczi and composition with Ernst von Dohnányi, and supporting himself by playing in nightclubs. A child who learned piano by watching lessons and improvised requests at a circus suggests an early improvisational setting that fits his later reputation, and a gift for the moment that began early. He began to establish a recital career in Hungary, Holland and Sweden, and between 1947 and 1950 he went on European tours with a jazz band. In 1950 he was imprisoned for attempting to defect, and after his release, AllMusic says, six months of exhaustive work brought him back to top form. His records on the Hungarian label Qualiton and the Czechoslovak label Supraphon began to circulate in Western Europe, propelling him to legendary status. In September 1956 he was asked to play, in just six weeks, the solo part in Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2. He debuted in Vienna at the Brahmssaal on 17 November 1956 with outstanding success. A jazz band, a prison term and a Bartók concerto he was asked to play on six weeks’ notice sketch a career that was anything but a straight line, and one that demanded adaptability at every turn. AllMusic calls him one of Europe’s most celebrated and individual piano virtuosos of the postwar decades, noted especially for his powers of improvisation and as a Liszt pianist. In 1969 he founded his own international music competition in Versailles, and had the ruined royal chapel restored and turned into a concert hall, which he named after Ferenc Liszt. A competition and a restored hall, set beside a concert career, can be read as a pianist whose work reached beyond his own playing and into places where other musicians could be heard.
Browse piano sheets by Cziffra on Zen Virtual Piano.
Interlude says Cziffra believed that technical mastery should never be displayed for its own sake but made subservient to a powerful emotional intellect and a cultured mind. He never accepted praise for his technique, and sharply reproached admirers: “I don’t care about technique. What you call technique is simply an expression of feeling.” In his autobiography he described how, while giving himself over completely to the moment of inspiration, he tried to keep a discipline of his thoughts on the next two or three measures so that his hands could follow the path of his vision. A pianist who called technique an expression of feeling, and who kept his thoughts disciplined on the next two or three measures while improvising, suggests an improviser balancing feeling and careful attention.
György Cziffra was born in a shantytown called Angels Court on the outskirts of Budapest, into a family of Gypsy musicians, and his father, György Cziffra Snr, played the cimbalom. AllMusic says he learned piano by watching an older sister’s lessons, and by the age of five he was improvising requests from the audience at a circus. At ten he was sent to the conservatory in Budapest, where he was able to stay only briefly, taking lessons from György Ferenczi and composition with Ernst von Dohnányi, and supporting himself by playing in nightclubs. A child who learned piano by watching lessons and improvised requests at a circus suggests an early improvisational setting that fits his later reputation, and a gift for the moment that began early.
He began to establish a recital career in Hungary, Holland and Sweden, and between 1947 and 1950 he went on European tours with a jazz band. In 1950 he was imprisoned for attempting to defect, and after his release, AllMusic says, six months of exhaustive work brought him back to top form. His records on the Hungarian label Qualiton and the Czechoslovak label Supraphon began to circulate in Western Europe, propelling him to legendary status. In September 1956 he was asked to play, in just six weeks, the solo part in Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2. He debuted in Vienna at the Brahmssaal on 17 November 1956 with outstanding success. A jazz band, a prison term and a Bartók concerto he was asked to play on six weeks’ notice sketch a career that was anything but a straight line, and one that demanded adaptability at every turn.
AllMusic calls him one of Europe’s most celebrated and individual piano virtuosos of the postwar decades, noted especially for his powers of improvisation and as a Liszt pianist. In 1969 he founded his own international music competition in Versailles, and had the ruined royal chapel restored and turned into a concert hall, which he named after Ferenc Liszt. A competition and a restored hall, set beside a concert career, can be read as a pianist whose work reached beyond his own playing and into places where other musicians could be heard.
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György Cziffra was born in a shantytown on the outskirts of Budapest into a family of Gypsy musicians, and AllMusic calls him one of the most celebrated and individual piano virtuosos of the postwar decades in Europe.
AllMusic says he was especially noted for his powers of improvisation and as a Liszt pianist.
He told admirers that what you call technique is simply an expression of feeling.
He founded his own international music competition in Versailles and had the ruined royal chapel near Senlis restored as a concert hall named after Ferenc Liszt.