György Cziffra
Hungarian-French virtuoso pianist and composer, celebrated for his recordings of Liszt, Chopin, and Schumann, and for his dazzling piano transcriptions.
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György Cziffra was a Hungarian-French virtuoso pianist and composer born on 5 November 1921 and died on 15 January 1994.[1] Twentieth-century virtuoso pianists often include Cziffra among the most celebrated.[1] Cziffra acquired French nationality in 1968.[2]
Last updated 2026-10-08 from the source article.
Life and work
In 1921, a Budapest family of Romani musicians who were poor gave birth to Cziffra.[3] Cziffra's mother Ilona and older sister Jolán provided the household income because his father Gyula had no job.[4] From 1947 until 1950, after the conflict ended, he supported himself by performing in Budapest nightspots and traveling with a European jazz ensemble.[5] Together with his wife and son, he fled to Vienna in 1956 and received a warm welcome there.[3]
The Festival de musique de La Chaise-Dieu in Auvergne was established by Cziffra in 1966; a piano competition named after him began in Versailles three years later.[3]
What the cited sources add
A short biography notes that Cziffra was a son of Hungarian Romas and his father was a cimbalom player in Paris cabarets in the 1910s.[6] The same source states that in 1956, after a stunning account of Béla Bartók's second piano concerto, Cziffra escaped with his wife and son to Vienna.[6] It adds that his death was from a heart attack resulting from complications from lung cancer due to smoking and alcohol.[6] It remarks that there is little doubt Cziffra had a remarkable virtuoso technique and was a master at improvisation.[6]
After his son died in a 1981 fire, Cziffra's spirits steadily declined, and he subsequently never performed or recorded with an orchestra again.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "György Cziffra" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Chopin: Piano Works / Cziffra", ArkivMusic, 16 June 2020; Siek 2016 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "György Cziffra" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Siek 2016 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "György Cziffra" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Morrison n.d. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "György Cziffra" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cselényi, "György Cziffra's Life in Hungary (1921–1956)", Studia Musicologica, 2023-06-19, p. 241–275; Cziffra (2006), "Prelude" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "György Cziffra" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Morrison n.d.; Summers n.d. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Gyorgy Cziffra (Piano) - Short Biography". facts only, no text reused. bach-cantatas.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article György Cziffra (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: György Cziffra (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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