Although in title only one admits to the fact, in truth this concert serves up three Liszt piano concertos, all of them dating from Liszt’s Weimar period of the 1850s. During the premiere in Pest of Hungarian Fantasy, Liszt student and son in law Hans von Bülow played the solo part, and he was similarly the first to perform Totentanz (Dance of Death) – including the Dies irae Gregorian chant – in The Hague. The champion of the piano, Liszt, performed the Piano Concerto in E flat major in Weimar under the baton of no less a master than Hector Berlioz.

For this concert András Keller invites three incredibly talented young pianists onto the stage to perform the solos in the Liszt pieces. Besides János Balázs (28), who is also respected as a festival organizer, the virtuoso János Palojtay and 19-year-old Mihály Berecz are proof of the vitality of the Hungarian school of piano traceable back to Liszt.

The concert concludes with the late Bartók masterpiece Concerto, rich in flashbacks of the composer’s memories of his homeland and brooding, near-death visions.