It is hard to miss him.
The airport in Budapest, the gateway to the country, carries his name. Numerous buildings around the city are also named after him—opera houses, museums and music academies…
So who could it be?
I’ve heard about a few Hungarians in my time—as have you, I’m sure. Houdini (as in Harry), Rubik (as in cube), Pulitzer (as in prize), Biro (as in pen), Herzl (as in Zionist), Gabor (as in Zsa Zsa)—and the list goes on and on.
However the Hungarian who gets the airport named after him is Ferenc Liszt, or Franz Liszt.
Maybe a bit surprisingly, he’d be the most recognizable Hungarian name for me as well. As a composer of pieces for the piano—and with a Dad as a concert pianist coercing us into listening from an early age, without fidgeting or twitching—Liszt is a name from my childhood. Maybe not quite as prominent Chopin or Rachmaninoff, but he definitely occupies a space in the memory bank.
It gets better.
I was in Budapest for the annual Board meeting of the IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students), which I have just joined as the South Pacific representative. We gathered in one of the three Novotel hotels in the city. The room in which we met carried his name as well.
But it gets even better…
When you enter the room, the start of one of Liszt’s compositions—widely considered to be his most famous one—is splashed across the wall. Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2.
Yeah, Nah — I don’t know about that choice for the wall.
The piece becomes a bit busy and breathless, even a bit bang-bang, for my (clearly) unrefined musical appetite. I’d rank a few pieces higher on the Liszt list.
Check out Liebestraum no. 3 …
If for some unfathomable reason that doesn’t move you, let’s add a cello and urge you to listen again.
Then, coming in at number two, I’d opt for this piece. I am partial to a classical Consolation every now and then. It must be the melancholic in me.
In third place is a crowd favourite, a ‘show-off’ piece which this area of the arts seems to produce, routinely.
And I’d nudge this one into the top five as well…
Then coming in at #5 is the aforementioned—widely celebrated, yet mildly maligned by this cultural philistine—Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2. It has been assisted towards celebrity status in recent generations by that great cultural icon from across the waters—Looney Tunes, starring Tom and Jerry.
See if you can pick it.
This performer ain’t so bad either!
nice chatting
Paul
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
Recent Posts
Football helps me train preachers. See, when you speak to me about football—or, ‘footie’—I need to know where your feet are before I can understand what you mean. Are your feet in Ireland, or Brazil, or the USA, or NZ—or in crazy Australia? It must be the most fanatical sporting nation in the world. Within…
Having been born in 1959, I don’t remember much about the 1960s. But I have heard a lot. Hippies. Drugs. Rock ‘n Roll. Assassinations. Moon-walking. A quick trip across to ChatGPT informs me immediately that it was ‘a transformative decade across the world’—marked by the civil rights and feminist movements, Cold War tensions, consumerism and…
