Hungarian Gypsy pianist (1921-1994), one of the most brillant super-virtuoso of the past century, almost self taught. He had a very hard life, extremely poor, wounded, political prisioner, but he was at last recognized as one of the greatest. His recordings are anthological, and his works for the piano very few can play today. On Liszt, he remains one of the best ever. Who was he?

BaronBatty

Gyorgy Cziffra (1921 - 1994) (From a review of Cziffra's CD recordings of Chopin and Liszt). While the temptation to match artistic temperament with biographical background often fails, it’s hard to dismiss the impact Cziffra’s gypsy parentage, time as a POW, three years of hard labor and ultimate escape to Vienna must have had in shaping his outlook. Cziffra’s complete 1962 set of the Chopin Études is frighteningly intense, as he constantly upends expectations and peers deeply into the darkest regions of the composer’s soul. Thus, the very first étude is deliberately lumpy, the second mechanically joyless, the “Black Key” brittle and drained of all its accustomed grace, the C# minor thrashingly violent and full of rhythmic and dynamic distension, the “Revolutionary” suffused with anguish, and Op. 25, # 7 so tortured with impatience that it’s simply impossible to beat its time. This is a deeply challenging, exhausting encounter, utterly unique among all the fine, idiomatic renditions on record. (The CD closes, though, with a “Heroic” Polonaise that’s equally puzzling – restrained, gentle and barely inflected.) The other CD will be far less controversial – a collection of Liszt powerhouse pieces that unquestionably fit Cziffra’s volatile and edgy temperament, ranging from the pristine beauty of the Sonetto 123 del Petrarca and the profound peace of “Un sospiro” to the severe formality of the Fantasy and Fugue on the Name B-A-C-H, the spiritual elevation of the Legende No. 2, the heroism of the Polonaise No. 2 and the dense volitility of the Mephisto Waltz No. 1. http://www.classicalnotes.net/columns/pianoweb.html Mar 01 08, 5:47 AM