Liszt’s reception in Hungary at the time of his 50th artistic anniversary

Abstract

The year 1873 was important for Liszt in two respects: in February, Parliament voted to establish the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music, of which he was elected to be the president. In November, a week before the new authority took office, Liszt's Hungarian friends, in the presence of an international group of artists, held a three-day celebration to commemorate the 50-year long artistic career of Liszt. The choice of date was not a coincidence: the jubilee committee had no doubt that the development of the musical life of the newly created capital would be entrusted to a composer of international fame who was at the same time a Hungarian as he himself declared. The events, gifts, laudations, musical analyses and other publications connected with the jubilee provide an interesting picture of how the eminent representatives of Hungarian music life, including Kornél Ábrányi in particular, regarded Liszt and his music in 1873. The article focuses on questions concerning what they evidently knew and what was important to them in Liszt’s music, either from a biographical point of view or in respect of his compositions. Several facts converge which point to evidence that the celebration of 1873 went back to the first great patriotic reception of Liszt in 1840, and that Liszt himself interpreted it as its continuation. Behind the three-day celebration there was a clear promise of a new future for Hungarian music, which Liszt was also aware of and was prepared to participate in.