About the Festival

The Visegrád Four International Piano Festival was founded by the Sárospatak Reformed Theological Academy in the 500th year of the Reformation in order to contribute to the preservation of the spiritual and cultural values of the region by identifying with the rich intellectual heritage and mission of the Sárospatak Reformed College.

The founders, in connection with existing tasks of the Academy, see a broad missionary opportunity in organizing the festival, which, in the diverse and highly responsible cultivation of cultural care, finds direction and a path that may be a specific form of our mission given by God. We have invited the main characters of our festival, the committed outstanding Hungarian and international musicians, who will give us the highest level of artistic testimony and example in their professional practice.

We hope that this piano festival can be more than just a couple of great concerts, as the universe can open up to us through the world of classical music. In the melodies, in the arm of the singing universe, we too are invited to the eternal voice of the souls. Thus, each of us has a task and a role to play in the service of completeness: the far-reaching Cantus firmus, the opposites, the humble bass organ sounds, short, lighter running tunes that barely sound and have already swirled to be played in a different tone. And there are serious long movements that evolve into sonatas.

There are earth songs and melodies of the rest of the universe. The parts fly and cross, meet and run, all according to their own mission, in the service of completeness. There are dramatic fights, voice battles, but they are all solved because they are all the work of a single Author, in whom each soul finds the place and role, problem, necessity of their own melody, so that they may be bound to the perfect beauty that is an integral part of the universe. It is nothing more than the life that is given to us by the will of the One, against the forces of destruction, devastation and death. Moreover, the only God Almighty shared our human life in His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to sing with us. He is still singing after the great drama of Golgotha. Let this voice be the guiding voice of our lives, fill our spaces and this festival as well. May this voice also lead us to realize that He is already singing us in His own voice in the eternal choral.

Szilveszter Füsti-Molnár, Ph.D.
festival director, SRTA rector

Understanding is of special importance from Debussy’s words to the people of Central Europe, since our often tragic history of disagreement and contradictions justifies the thinking together, mutual understanding and acting for the common good of all. One of the important areas that also touches the soul is classical music.

Thanks to the Sárospatak Reformed Theological Academy, for the second time this year, the V4 International Piano Festival celebrates the importance, beauty and vitality of classical music, and the unity of the Central European people.

The festival simultaneously conveys the Christian values and – with reference to its historical background – the political, cultural and diplomatic cooperation between the Visegradian countries.

The festival will feature solo performances by world-renowned pianists like Peter Donohoe, Alexander Melnikov and Sergey Kuznetsov, alongside V4 artists. Poland is represented by Lukas Krupinski, Slovakia by Ladislav Fanzowitz and Czech Republic by pianist Jan Vojtek of Czech-Hungarian descent.

In addition to renowned foreign guest artists, Hungarian pianists also have an excellent program for the general public. Kossuth and Liszt Prize-winning pianist János Balázs will perform at the festival, and we will hear the young pianist Misi Boros, winner of the first series of the Virtuoso series at the matinee concert

The festival, as its name implies, focuses on the piano. Accordingly, the opening concert will feature KV 365 piece of the rarely heard Mozart Concerto Es-dur for two pianos accompanied by the Miskolc Symphonic Orchestra and the Kossuth Prize winner János Rolla concertmaster.

Afternoon and evening solo performances include the improvisational evening of the internationally renowned pianist Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, winner of the Kossuth and Liszt Prize, the Czech Trio Bohemo Chamber Concert, and the extraordinary interactive organ concert of Gergely Rákász.

The five-day event features a total of 10 concerts and the most popular piano works. This year, Chopin’s art will be given special attention as we commemorate the 170th anniversary of his death.

It is our belief that the Piano Festival is an exceptionally celebrates and serves universal culture and at the same time honors the power of culture to maintain national identity.

With music you can say anything that speech can no longer do. It expresses emotions without words, brings happiness and healing by the wonderful world of sounds, alleviates sorrow. It gives peace, hope and courage. It bridges and dissolves differences in harmony. It talks about the meaning of our lives. It shows us the good, and calls us to follow the right way.

Our goal is to create a tradition to present the cultural diversity of the V4s, connectivity, community, interdependence, mutual understanding and to find ways of peaceful, common ascension.

The series of events is also a celebration of personal encounters and looking at each other whose unifying power is unquestionable, especially since in this wonderful historic Hungarian town, Sárospatak, almost everyone feels the often turbulent centuries of history, our struggles, our losses, our reconciliation, the efforts of our ancestors, the sacrifices, and the obligatory responsibility of our generation from our past.

We wish that this series of concerts, seeking new ways in our region, while at the same time bringing together cultural diversity and artistic highs, will serve the spiritual and religious enrichment of all of us!

Ad maiorem Dei gloriam!
All for the greater glory of God!

Apolka Bonnyai, DLA
artistic director