The Coming of French and Belgian Music to Budapest and Liszt's Role

Abstract

The works of French and Belgian composers found their way to Budapest long before Liszt was born. Operas were the first to arrive when in 1789 Ze'mire et Azor by Gretry and Le De'serteur by Monsigny were performed in the Hungarian capital. The operas by Dalayrac very soon joined the preceding works. From that time on in the 18th-19th centuries French operas were always performed in Budapest, sometimes overshadowing all other operas. Personal visits by performing artists for concerts were not as numerous, probably because the stage-coach journey was quite long. Transportation from the West through Vienna to Budapest was realizable on the Danube by steamers from 1830 and by railway from 1850. Consequently, works arrived earlier than musicians. A violin concerto by Rode was played in a country music festival as early as 1830, as well as chamber music by Onslow was much liked in concerts in the capital from 1830 onwards. It was during those years that Heller moved to Paris. He did not however transmit anything from French music as his connections with his country were broken off. Some years ago the Swiss Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger published a valuable book about him, including the letters of Heller. As opposed to Heller, it is all the more interesting to note how soon some works by Chopin arrived in Budapest. Ferenc Erkel, the founder of the Hungarian opera and of the philharmonic concerts first performed the Mi-minor piano-concerto by Chopin in 1835.1 (Erkel, like Chopin, was born in 1810.) Three years later two pianists played within a short time of each other the same concerto. A year later another pianist