György Cziffra
| György Cziffra | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Born |
November 5, 1921 Budapest, Hungary |
| Died | January 15, 1994 (aged 72) Senlis, Oise, France |
| Genres | Classical Music |
| Occupation(s) | Pianist, composer |
György Cziffra (in Hungarian form Cziffra György, Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈt͡sifrɒ ˈɟørɟ], also known as Georges Cziffra; 5 November 1921 – 15 January 1994), was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. He is considered to be one of the greatest pianists of all time. Among his teachers were István Thomán, who was a favourite pupil of Franz Liszt.
He became a French citizen in 1968. Cziffra is known for his recordings of works of Liszt, Frédéric Chopin and Robert Schumann, and also for his technically demanding arrangements of several orchestral works for the piano – among them, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee and Johann Strauss II's The Blue Danube.
Cziffra was born to a poor family in Budapest in 1921. In his memoirs Cziffra describes his father as "a cabaret artist". His parents had lived in Paris before World War I, when they were expelled as enemy aliens.
His earliest training in piano came from watching his sister practice. She had decided she was going to learn the piano after finding a job which allowed her to save the required amount of money for buying an upright piano. Georges, who was weak as a child, often watched his sister practice, and mimicked her. He learnt without sheet music, instead repeating and improvising tunes sung by his parents. Later he earned money as a child improvising on popular music at a local circus.
In 1930 Cziffra began to study at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest with Ernő Dohnányi, and until 1941, when he was conscripted into the Hungarian Army, gave numerous concerts in Hungary, Scandinavia and the Netherlands.
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