Dezső Ránki Presented by Liszt Academy

“Not even the most renowned foreign pianists attracted as much attention as Dezső Ránki”, wrote music critic András Pernye in 1970, reviewing the pianist’s first solo concert at the Liszt Academy. Pernye described Ránki as “an unusually and admirably perfect pianist. He possesses and conveys the musical material with extraordinary confidence. His entire appearance is incredibly likeable, and his relationship with the music is simple, sincere, and free of pretense”. Remarkably, over the past more than fifty years, Ránki’s sincere and unpretentious performing character has not changed one bit. His original program included works by Haydn and Schumann, as well as Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, with Liszt and Chopin etudes in the encore. On this evening, exactly fifty-five years later, Ránki will pair Haydn and Schumann with works by Beethoven and Debussy, proving that one cannot step into the same river twice.