Origins
He was born in 1959 into a music-loving family. A child prodigy, he progressed through the stages of musical training at remarkable speed. He began piano studies at the age of six and appeared in concert already at seven. At ten, he was admitted to the Bartók Béla Secondary School of Music, where he studied under Lajos Kertész. At the age of twelve, he won second prize in his age category at the International Youth Piano Competition in Ústí nad Labem. At the age of thirteen, he won the same competition, and the jury awarded him a special prize awarded across all age categories. Later that year, he gave his first solo recital, followed by a performance of Haydn’s D major Piano Concerto with orchestral accompaniment. Two years later, he was admitted to the Liszt Academy, where he studied in the classes of Pál Kadosa and Dezső Ránki. At seventeen, he gave his first academy solo recital, performing works by Prokofiev. At nineteen, he became a student in the advanced piano programme and was awarded the Artisjus Prize for his interpretations of contemporary Hungarian compositions. During his years at the Liszt Academy, he relinquished his compositional ambitions. At the age of twenty, he won first prize at the Hungarian Radio Piano Competition, along with the special prize established for students of higher education. In 1979, his piano recital was broadcast live, followed by an orchestral concert in which he appeared as soloist. He graduated at the age of twenty-three and once again won first prize, this time at the International Debussy Piano Competition in Paris. In recognition of this achievement, the Ministry of Culture awarded him a substantial state scholarship, an artistic grant, for two academic years, enabling him to give concerts in Hungary. In 1983/84, he studied at the Conservatoire Européen de Musique in Paris as a student of Yvonne Lefébure. This period left a clear legacy: a comprehensive knowledge of the piano repertoire and a native-level command of French musical idiom.
By the age of twenty-five, he had established a remarkably successful career, and his performances were consistently met with acclaim.
“Years in the Galleys”
The expression borrowed from a biography of Giuseppe Verdi refers to the period between 1984 and 1988, when the young pianist experienced a sudden reversal, moving from international study trips and professional success into enforced privation, for reasons that remain unknown to this day. It is plausible that he became the victim of denunciations filed by the Department III/II of the Ministry of the Interior (foreign counterintelligence). The officials neither at the time nor later were willing to justify their decision to deny him the French state scholarship and artistic grant that he had earned in his own right through competition results. Although in 1985, he received the UNESCO Fonds International de l’Entraide Musicale Prize and in 1986, as the most outstanding student of the French institution where he studied, the Bonnaud-Chevillion Prize of the Fondation de France, he was unable to go abroad, as his elderly French professor died. Moreover, following his return from France, he was subjected to six months of police surveillance.
The systematic obstruction of his professional career continued, as he was offered neither employment nor concert engagements. Moreover, the competent state departments ensured that no educational or cultural institution could employ him. The only opportunities he received came from Hungarian Radio, which allowed him one or two live broadcast performances per year. He was forced to accept financial support from his mother. These difficulties were further compounded by a congenital eye condition that significantly constrained his life: although he was able to read musical scores, in everyday situations, such as moving about in public spaces, he required accompaniment. For these reasons, he neither went abroad nor was able to take up work as a piano teacher.
Survival Against the Odds
In 1988, two decisive turning points occurred in his life: he discovered his musical style and found a patron. Already in the preceding year, he had begun to explore the Hungarian Romantic piano repertoire, and in 1988, he made a conscious decision to devote himself to this period over the long term. The other decisive moment came when the global company Naxos Ltd. invited him to make a CD recording. As a result, Ernst Bloch’s complete works for piano were released on the international market in 1988 in performances by István Kassai. The recording proved so successful that, over the following decade, he worked exclusively for Naxos.
Following the regime change, his work was finally recognised, albeit only to a limited extent. Since 1989, he has been a founding member of the executive board of the Erkel Ferenc Society; in 1998 he was elected to the board of the Hubay Jenő Society, and in 2000 to the Lajtha László Society. In 1990, he received the Magyar Rádió Nívódíja (Hungarian Radio Quality Award) for his studio recordings of Ferenc Erkel’s piano works.
From that year onwards, he has performed together with Ferenc Szecsődi, whom he first met in 1984 at a concert organised by the Cziffra Foundation. Kassai and Szecsődi are both deeply committed to the Hungarian musical repertoire, and each has proved well suited to pioneering projects. The chamber works of Ferenc Erkel and Jenő Hubay were made available in recorded form thanks to the dedicated and self-sacrificing efforts of these two resolute performers.
Reviver of the Past
His Relationship with György Cziffra
During the ‘years in the galleys’, the only genuine lifeline was the support of the pianist György Cziffra. He had already established an artistic collaboration with the musician, who had fled abroad in 1956, during his years at the Liszt Academy. He first performed before Cziffra in 1981 in Senlis. As a result of this performance, he took part between 1982 and 1986 in six gala concerts of the Cziffra Foundation in Hungary and France. At Cziffra’s invitation, he participated in Cziffra’s first masterclass in Keszthely, and in 1987, he was included on the soloists’ roster of the Fondation Cziffra.
Under these circumstances, it seemed self-evident to Cziffra that he should entrust the young pianist with the preparation of his improvisations for publication. The first volume occupied Kassai for two years, and the score went to press in 1995. A substantial proportion of these pieces had to be transcribed by ear from sound recordings, as either no manuscript existed at all or the available notation was unsuitable for publication. Regrettably, the project could not be continued, as following the death of György Cziffra, no agreement could be reached with his widow.
From Mosonyitól to Weinerig
From 1989 onwards, Kassai devoted himself primarily to recording. In 1990, he recorded works by Ferenc Erkel; from 1991, he launched his Mosonyi series; and in 1997, by then with Hungaroton, he embarked on his Hubay and Weiner cycles. Alongside these projects, he found time for occasional excursions into the music of Béla Bartók, Ernő Dohnányi, and Robert Volkmann.
His releases were warmly received by audiences, while critical opinion remained divided. His playing was recognised, and neither his technical command nor his artistic standard was ever called into question. However, his aims, interpretative solutions, and historical perspective were nevertheless questioned by some critics. One review dismissed his Hubay edition as a waste of time: “The Szecsődi–Kassai duo would surely be able to find works more worthy of recording” (Breuer, 1998). Hungarian critics largely regarded the Weiner edition, especially its fourth disc, as problematic, while nonetheless acknowledging the quality of the performers’ achievement:
“István Kassai is a musician who has long served the cause of Hungary’s musical past with selfless dedication. Whether performing works by Mihály Mosonyi, Ferenc Erkel, Robert Volkmann, Ernő Dohnányi, Jenő Hubay, or Leó Weiner, his playing invariably bears the unmistakable hallmark of care and conscientiousness. The performance fully satisfies expectations: the piano playing on the disc is colourful, distinctive in character, and marked by restraint.” (Csengery, 2007)
The Mosonyi concert given by the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on 1 October 2001 likewise met with widespread incomprehension. Despite strong criticism of both the works and the conductor, the reviewer praised István Kassai’s colourful, rhythmically articulate, and resonant piano playing, highlighting the merits of the soloist as an outstanding interpreter of Mosonyi. (Csengery, 2001)
However, another group of critics not only acknowledged the pianist’s merits but also explicitly endorsed the performance of lesser-known composers:
“In 1997, Hungaroton released the first Hubay CD, on which the violin-piano works were performed by Ferenc Szecsődi (violin) and István Kassai (piano), and the disc was received as a revelation. Over the years, listeners have been introduced to further works by Hubay, and now the sixth work in the series of violin-piano compositions is available on record. The performance by Szecsődi and Kassai remains as compelling as ever.” (Deák, 2002)
In contrast to Hungarian critical writing, articles and CD reviews in German specialist journals present a markedly different picture of the pianist. Authoritative critics have enthusiastically celebrated his artistry and have rated his interpretative approach particularly highly. Such international recognition recurs from recording to recording, which is why István Kassai may regard the technical observations formulated in these reviews as authoritative, whether they highlight strengths or point to weaknesses.
From this exceptionally rich discography, another work merits particular attention: István király (lit. King Stephen), the opera by Ferenc Erkel. Written in 1885, this opera not only attains the artistic level of Hunyadi László (lit. László Hunyadi) and Bánk bán (Bánk the Palatine), but may also be regarded as the spiritual and musical counterpart of The Legend of Saint Elisabeth by Franz Liszt. Forgotten by Hungarian operatic practice, this work was revived only in 2000 by the Cluj-Napoca Hungarian Opera. The Cluj (Kolozsvár) opera company recorded the performance on CD, albeit in a heavily abridged version. István Kassai and his wife, Valéria Csányi, undertook the substantial task of preparing the score and restoring Erkel’s original version. Together with Ákos Somogyváry, they rehearsed the work and, with the support of Naxos, recorded it on CD. On this occasion, the pianist contributed not only as a performer but also in the capacities of philologist and music historian, and additionally joined the choir as a singer.
The Music Historian
In 1988, when he made a deliberate decision to devote himself to the exploration of Hungarian Romanticism, he undertook to research the oeuvres of individual composers. His most in-depth work was required in connection with Ferenc Erkel, Mihály Mosonyi, and Leó Weiner. On all three, he gave numerous public lectures and published articles. His engagement with Mosonyi was especially sustained.
It is surprising that he chose to devote his DLA dissertation to Leó Weiner. Having recorded every note of this relatively little-known compositional oeuvre, he may be regarded as its most authoritative analyst. Drawing on several years of meticulous research, he examined Weiner’s symphonic poem Toldi (1950), its successive transformations, and its modest reception history. Toldi, a large-scale work and a very late manifestation of Romanticism, is presented by the analyst with due understanding, yet with the necessary critical distance. The dissertation was completed in 2011 and is likely to be updated in the near future.
For several well-founded reasons, István Kassai has consistently opposed textual and musical adaptations of the Erkel operas; however, he primarily rejects such interventions in his capacity as a music historian. Through his research into the textual variants of Dózsa and King Stephen, he has confronted the musical public with the prosodic, psychological, and dramaturgical pitfalls of such adaptations, as well as with forms of linguistic expression alien to the music itself.
As a music historian, he has actively advocated the publication and republication of early Hungarian musical scores. To date, he has brought out three volumes of Mosonyi’s piano works with Akkord Zenei Kiadó. He has so far prepared close to thirty engraved scores from unpublished works by Ernst Bloch, Ferenc Erkel, Jenő Hubay, Mihály Mosonyi, and Leó Weiner.
He has repeatedly spoken out against the inadequacies of music publishing, recording production, and concert opportunities in Hungary. To this end, he has approached numerous political and cultural leaders in an effort to ensure that the two centuries of Hungarian (and Hungary-based) musical output between Pál Esterházy and Béla Bartók might finally be accorded the care and attention it deserves within Hungarian musical culture.
Summary of His Career
Few musicians are granted a balanced, happy, and fortunate life. Still fewer have faced trials as severe as those endured by István Kassai. However, through his faith and his commitment to music, he overcame the hardships born of material deprivation, intellectual isolation, and spiritual doubt.
With forty-five CDs, he has helped to bring early Hungarian music to wider attention. To perform Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Chopin’s B-minor Sonata, or Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto is ‘merely’ a matter of opportunity and talent; to labour over the works of long-forgotten Hungarian composers demands far more.
[2016]