English translation
by John Hornsby
of György Cziffra jr.'s French
version of the Hungarian manuscript.
Cziffra and his son
György (1959)
Soleilka Cziffra
György
Cziffra, a giant among pianists of the
twentieth century, was born in Budapest
on 5th November, 1921 and
died on 15th January, 1994.
Born with outstanding talent in circumstances
of dire poverty ' such mixed fortunes
were to be his lot all his life - he
survived war, imprisonment, hard labour
as a political prisoner, his hands and
wrists seemingly permanently damaged,
he survived to fight back and rebuild
his career, improvising in nightclubs
until in 1956 he escaped with his family
to the West and became the idol of audiences
and arned the admiration of colleagues
as diverse as Alfred Cortot and Martha
Argerich. However, a critical clique
turned savagely against him, all the
more when his wrists began to suffer
under the strain of constant tours.
Yet he achieved another dream: to create
a foundation to help young musicians,
which he did at Senlis, north east of
Paris, buying an abandoned Royal Chapel
where he set up the Franz Liszt Auditorium
in homage to his hero and compatriot.
Yet barely four years after the completion
of these memoirs, the most terrible
tragedy of all struck Cziffra and his
wife, Soleilka, when their only son
died in a fire in his home at the age
of thirty-eight. Though he gradually
made something of a comeback, the remaining
years of Cziffra's life were chiefly
spent auditioning and advising young
musicians.
The welcome which Cziffra extends to
his readers at the end of these memoirs
to visit the Franz Liszt Auditorium
at Senlis still stands. The Chapel Saint
Frambourg was fully restored at last
in 2001 when it was re-roofed in its
original form. How proud Cziffra would
have been to see it risen again in all
its glory and now visible for miles
around!
The first English edition of Cziffra's
memoirs was published in 1996. Half
the print-run was regrettably sent for
pulping when the publisher sold up.
We have taken the opportunity in this
resurrected version to eliminate a certain
number of misprints.
John Hornsby.
March 2006
Introduction
Prelude
and The Raft of Poverty
In
the Circus Ring
The
Pedlar's Prediction
Hail
Caesar!
Jealousy
is Dead
A
Steam Engine for a Piano
Stalin
Organs
Hungarian
Rhapsody: a failure
White
Nights
All
or Nothing
Pilgrimage
to Saint Frambourg - Dawn
