A Diary of the presidency - A family-friendly May

Budapest’s Millenáris Park became a huge playground on the occasion of the 6th Europe Day on 7th May. Besides entertainment, the festival featured serious topics, such as the Hungarian EU Presidency, the Year of Volunteering, youth mobility, climate change and the fight against discrimination. “Europe Day is not about politics, but about people, the family and about having a great time together,” MEP András Gyürk stressed in his opening speech, at the Europe Day festival. He said that the EU provides Hungary with an opportunity to make progress, and such opportunity should be taken advantage of. Minister of State for EU Affairs, Enikő Győri spoke about possible ways of cooperation and issues of Europeanism, “We are all Hungarians and Europeans at the same time, we have various robes, but these robes look good next to each other on the coat rack.”

A whole series of concerts in a lighter mood and relaxed atmosphere and interactive performances awaited visitors of the Liszt-marathon on 22nd May at the different venues of Millenáris. Hungarofest Klassz Office organised an all-day event mainly for the younger generations to gain memories and experiences and, of course, to develop a taste for classical music.

Secession, spring, sunshine and culture in all forms and in large quantities, far from academic approaches and close to the family. On 7th May from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., Hungarofest invited us for a for a ”DIY gastronomy picnic” in the National Museum Gardens, where countless family and cultural programmes awaited the visitors. The Secessionist picnic was also the closing event of the Masters of European Secession exhibition.

Liszt for everyone!, the biggest free outdoors concert of the Liszt Year was held on 28th May on the Dóm Square in Szeged. The Szeged Open Air Festival had two apropos to celebrate its 80th anniversary with a grandiose concert of (mostly) Liszt works: the EU presidency drawing close to the finish and also the Neighbours’ Day.

One of the most significant events of the EU presidency and the Liszt Year was the concert dedicated to The Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican on 27th May. The Hungarian National Philharmony Orchestra, conducted by Zoltán Kocsis and the National Choir with choirmaster Mátyás Antal gave an exceptional performance in the Paul VI Audience Hall in front of almost 7000 people. After President Pál Schmitt’s opening speech, the musicians first played three of Liszt’s piano pieces in Kocsis’s instrumentalisation: Festive March For The Goethe Centenary, which was written for the late poet-master’s 100th birthday anniversary, Obermann Valley from the first volume of Years of Pilgrimage, which is one of the most interesting Kocsis-instrumentalizations (or rather, orchestral re-interpretations) and Ave Maria, which bears the subtitle The Bells of Rome and was written in honour of the city of a special role in Liszt’s life.The concert deserved the credit not only of the audience and the numerous members of diplomacy sitting in the rows – including Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén, Minister of Foreign Affairs János Martonyi, Minister of National Resources Miklós Réthelyi and their wives – but also of The Pope, a great admirer of music, who expressed his gratitude to the musicians for an extremely high level performance.

The rather shallow proverb about the traditional friendship of Poles and Hungarians was filled with new and meaningful contents by the project of the Krakow Hungarian Centre. While recalling the memories of the Great Generation they also saluted the transfer of the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council to Poland. The name of the project is Báthory Express, alluding to one of the express trains between the two countries, however, the organisers did not choose the rail track, as it would not have enabled as many encounters as they had planned beforehand. Instead, a Nysa van was taking them along their journey through a total of 15 cities in Hungary Poland. Beyond just playing on the nostalgia of these people, the 2011 initiative was trying to get people involved in putting meaningful thoughts, memories and contents into the framework of the legendary but rather empty notion of the two peoples being long-time friends. The 30-day expedition (Budapest-Pécs-Szeged-Debrecen-Miskolc-NowySącz-Tarnów/Kraków-Katowice-Wrocław-Łódź-Poznań-Gdańsk-Sopot- Warszawa) did not only try to build upon the nostalgia of the people usually called the Great Generation, born shortly after the end of the second world war, but it also tried to mobilise the younger Hungarian generation, believed to be less informed about Poland. A web-campaign for young people interested in visual arts and another one trying to make matches between artists under the banner HU LOVE PL was also launched.

Mária Eckhardt’s book entitled Franz Liszt's oratorio Christus and the Budapest Academy of Music was published by Helikon Kiadó. The publication as well as her exhibition of posters launched on 29th March at the old Academy of Music’s Franz Liszt concert hall are both integral parts of the author’s oeuvre and of the entire Liszt tradition. The exhibition material of Mária Eckhardt was printed both in Hungarian and English, and she is also planning to publish a brochure on the show.

On 9th of May „The European Traditions – Spain – Hungary – 2011” Photo Exposition was inaugurated at the headquarters of the European Institutions in Madrid with the participation of Francisco Fonseca, Director of the Representation of the European Commission, Ignacio Samper, Director of the Representation of the European Parliament, Diego López Garrido, Spanish State Secretary for the European Affairs and Edit Bucsi Szabó, Ambassador. The photo exposition presented the Spanish and Hungarian folklore traditions in paralel, showing how they still survive in our present days, and giving a wonderful opportunity to these two nations to have a cultural encounter.

Meanwhile, the exhibition entitled Sándor Márai, a 20th Century pilgrim had been opened (and is still on display till 28th August) in Barcelona. „This exhibition is special because it is based on Márai’s legacy, which can be found in the Petőfi Museum of Literature, but it is displayed by Catalan designers introducing the life and works of the author, who is also well-known throughout Spain, with unique colours and atmosphere. Furthermore, the language of the exhibition is Catalan too.” – said Tibor Mészáros, who manages Márai’s legacy, about the exhibition.

Apropos of the Hungarian EU Presidency Spanish visitors enjoyed a large number of special Hungarian cultural programs in May. Tamás Végvári, cultural attaché at the Hungarian Embassy in Madrid spoke about the programs.

Baltazár Theatre’s performance of Boys and Girls, written by Ernő Szép, in the Hungarian Institute of Culture in Brussels on 24 May was a great success. Baltazár Theatre was founded in 1998 with the aim of giving an opportunity for disabled people to live off their talent.

The Art on Lake exhibition, also launched in May, is one of the most spectacular art events of the Hungarian EU presidency. Visitors are not squeezed within four walls but are free to row around the Budapest City Park lake to view the display, which is available to anyone till 4 September. To be precise, the idea of a water-exhibition was not a new one; a similar exhibition had already been staged there ten years ago by the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts. Also this institution was responsible for the preparations of the new display; and it took them three years to finish their work, which does not seem a long time if we consider the fact that the works for the exhibition had been prepared for this particular occasion by 25 artists. In addition, it did not make it easier for the curators and organisers that the opening of the new exhibition on 24^th May mainly depended on the reconstruction of the City Park Ice Rink. We spoke to László Baán, Chief Director of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Now there is only one more day left before the eventful six-month period of the Hungarian EU Presidency is over. Coming up tomorrow, our summary of the last month’s cultural events.