G. Cziffra in Beethovenian context of the twentieth century

Abstract

The celebration of L.VanBeethoven’s 250th anniversary stimulated an already sustained interest in his creative heritage. Musicological thought has not stayed away from the figure of the outstanding Viennese classicist. Therefore, the question of the interpretation of his works again becomes relevant in this context. The name of György Cziffra, the famous twentieth-century Hungarian pianist, is closely linked in the history of European pianism with the element of virtuosity, at first, with F. List’s music presentation. The difference opinions about Cziffra’s interpretations of other composers and Beethoven among them, as well as unexplored peculiarities of the pianist’s interpretation of Beethoven’s music actualize the choice of our theme and determine the scientific novelty of the research results. The purpose of the article is to reveal the parameters of G. Cziffra’s individual performing style in historical context of the twentieth-century Beethovenian. For the first time in Ukrainian musicology, the creative principles of the Hungarian pianist as an interpreter of Beethoven’s works on the example of the composer’s “32 Variations” in C minor are analyzed; some parallels between the performance principles of Hungarian master and the composer himself are outlined. The methods of a stylistic analysis in projection to the performance art, as well as on a comparative approach, which allows to reveal the uniqueness of Cziffra’s interpretation of Beethoven’s music text, were applied. Analyzing the Hungarian pianist’s performance of the “32Variations” cycle, we heard a new interpretation of Beethoven’s ‘heroic’ character, but we did not observe any emphasis on virtuosity for the sake of itself, but rather a musical intellectuality took place. It is the subtle nuances, strokes, tempo, character and the rich palette of articulations that determine the Hungarian pianist’s performance style. Summarizing, we can observe, on the one hand, Cziffra’s own ‘romantic’ individualized interpretation of Beethoven’s music in the 20th century, and, on the other hand, some parallels, although less evident, with the specific features of Beethoven’s own performance style.