György Cziffra's Life in Hungary (1921–1956)

Abstract

Georges Cziffra (1921–1994) was one of the outstanding figures of Hungarian and international performing arts in the twentieth century. His adventurous life, career, fate, the virtuosity of his technical skills and his international fame have created a cult of his own, especially in recent years. However, his professional career and general biography have not yet been studied, and little to no literature has been written in the two and a half decades since his death. Thus, the reader/researcher can rely almost exclusively on his autobiography (Cannons and Flowers) and on personal reminiscences and anecdotes, which, as my research has shown, resemble a very limited extent of reality. My aim is to reconstruct and present an objective, fact-based biography in the current study, relying on the material of archives and other institutions and libraries I have collected, as well as on the complete contemporary digitized press material.