6th September 2017 – Magyars and Gypsies – Liszt and the Hungarian National Style

Uncategorised

Magyars and Gypsies – Liszt and the Hungarian Nation

Lecture_2017_September_Bartlett

Wednesday 6th September 2017

Rosamund Bartlett

Franz Liszt was a cosmopolitan figure – he even visited Leamington Spa –but with the rise of Hungarian nationalism he was increasingly seen as the soul of the Magyar people, a position solidified with his wildly popular Hungarian Rhapsodies. Why did Liszt and others associate Hungarian music with gypsies?

This lecture explores what it was to be Hungarian at the time of the creation of the new capital city of Budapest in 1867, and why the much younger Bartok challenged his view of the Hungarian national style.