ジョルジュ・シフラ
György Cziffra was one of the most celebrated and individual piano virtuosos of the postwar decades in Europe, especially noted for his powers of improvisation and as a Liszt pianist.
He was born in a shantytown called Angels Court on the outskirts of Budapest to a family of gypsy musicians. The family was desperately poor, and ultimately both his father and a sister died of starvation.
He learned piano by watching an older sister's lessons. 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. He was able to stay there only briefly, taking lessons from György Ferenczi and composition with Ernst von Dohnányi, supporting himself playing in nightclubs. He began to establish a recital career in Hungary, Holland, and Sweden. He married Zuleika shortly before he was drafted into the Hungarian army in 1941. After the war, he was imprisoned for a year in 1946.
Returning to his wife and small son, and with his mother and surviving sisters dependent on him, he worked for hours each day to recover his piano technique, making a living on tips from playing jazz in bars and cabarets each night. After the Communists gained full power in Hungary, Cziffra was imprisoned again, for political reasons, which meant that his captors also took his wife and son, György Cziffra, Jr., The boy nearly died from the inhumane conditions in which he was held. Cziffra's Communist captors tortured him; knowing he was a pianist, they beat his hands and made him carry heavy pieces of stone. When he was released, the ligaments were so loose that he could not transmit the power of his arms through his wrists. After six months of exhaustive work, he recovered his top form. His records on the Hungarian label Qualiton and the Czechoslovak Supraphon label began to circulate in Western Europe, propelling him to legendary status.
When Russian troops poured into Hungary, the refugees fleeing ahead of them included the Cziffra family. After ten days on foot, they reached Vienna. He debuted there at the Brahmssaal on November 17, 1956, with outstanding success. Debuts elsewhere in Europe followed. After one recital in London, The Daily Telegraph said the audience "witnessed feats of piano playing probably never to be equalled, certainly never surpassed in their lifetime." Cziffra gained international stardom not without critical disfavor, adhering to a nineteenth century approach to music that allowed for taking "liberties" with the texts.
Cziffra settled in France with his family and took citizenship there. He undertook three major projects. One was the establishment of a piano competition in his name. The second was the purchase of the Royal Chapel of St. Frambourg near Senlis, which he made a non-sectarian shrine to spirituality and the arts, now known as the Foundation Cziffra. He also restored the organ at the Abbey of La Chaise Dieu and started a summer festival there, at the suggestion of his son, who became a conductor. It is known as the Salle Cziffra.
György Jr. tragically died in an accident in 1981, shortly after making his first commercial recordings. Cziffra refused to perform with an orchestra thereafter. He retired from recording in 1986 and left the stage in 1988. In the same year, France named him a cultural ambassador to a newly liberalized Hungary. He was diagnosed with cancer in the early 1990s, but died of a heart attack. He is buried in the cemetery of Senlis near the remains of his son, and his wife continues to direct the Foundation Cziffra.
© TiVo
類似のアーティスト
-
Classical Music for Babies
Aldo Ciccolini, Gyorgy Cziffra, Wilhelm Kempff
Classical - BNF Collection 発売日 2015/01/01
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
-
Tchaikovsky: Klavierkonzert Nr. 1, Op. 23 & Violinkonzert Op. 35
Gyorgy Cziffra, Leonid Kogan, Andre Vandernoot, Constantin Silvestri
Classical - Warner Classics 発売日 2001/01/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Polonaises, Impromptus, Sonates, Barcarolle...
Classical - Warner Classics 発売日 2021/09/24
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Études symphoniques, Toccata & Carnaval
Classical - Warner Classics 発売日 2021/10/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Concerto pour piano No. 1 & Concerto pour violon
Gyorgy Cziffra, Leonid Kogan, Andre Vandernoot, Constantin Silvestri
Classical - Warner Classics 発売日 2001/01/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Klavierkonzerte, Totentanz & Ungarische Fantasie
Concertos - Warner Classics 発売日 2000/08/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Transcriptions, paraphrases et improvisations
Classical - Warner Classics 発売日 2022/04/29
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Impromptus, Polonaises, Études...
Classical - Warner Classics 発売日 2022/02/14
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Georges Cziffra Plays Chopin
Classical - Warner Classics 発売日 2024/03/28
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Transcriptions of Works by Wagner, Verdi, Mendelssohn, Auber
Classical - Hungaroton 発売日 2014/07/15
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Rapsodie hongroise No. 2 (Mono Version)
Classical - BNF Collection 発売日 1959/01/01
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Masters Collection: György Cziffra
Gyorgy Cziffra, Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Hungarian State Orchestra, György Lehel, Zoltan Rozsnyai
Classical - Hungaroton 発売日 2019/01/04
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Polonaises (Stereo Version)
Classical - BNF Collection 発売日 1963/01/01
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Grieg & Rachmaninov : Piano Concertos
Classical - Warner Classics 発売日 2001/07/27
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Georges Cziffra: Bach / Busoni , Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt
Classical - Ermitage Records 発売日 2023/04/06
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Rhapsodie espagnole & Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (Live in Prague, 1955)
Classical - Ica Classics 発売日 2011/01/17
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cziffra, Gyorgy: Piano Works by Liszt, Schumann, Balakirev, Field, Hummel and Cziffra
Classical - Hungaroton 発売日 2014/07/15
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Carnaval, Op. 9, Carnaval de Vienne, Op. 26 & Pièces de fantaisie, Op. 12
Classical - Warner Classics 発売日 2021/08/27
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
György Cziffra · The early Columbia records
Classical - G.O.P. 発売日 2019/05/03
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Etudes D'Execution Transcendante (Excerpts) / Rhapsodies Hongroises (Excerpts)
Classical - Hungaroton 発売日 2014/07/15
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo