TRAVEL TUESDAY 295 - BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

“Do you recall that night in June, Do you recall that night in June, Upon the Danube River; We listened to the ländler-tune, We watched the moonbeams quiver.” -  Charles Hamilton Aide

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us.

Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only. Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Budapest is the capital and the largest city of Hungary, and one of the largest cities in the European Union. It is the country’s principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre, sometimes described as the primate city of Hungary. According to the census, in 2011 Budapest had 1.74 million inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2.1 million due to suburbanisation. The Budapest Metropolitan Area is home to 3.3 million people. The city covers an area of 525 square kilometres.

Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with the unification of Buda and Óbuda on the west bank, with Pest on the east bank on 17 November 1873. The history of Budapest began with Aquincum, originally a Celtic settlement that became the Roman capital of Lower Pannonia. Hungarians arrived in the territory in the 9th century. Their first settlement was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241–42. The re-established town became one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture by the 15th century.

Following the Battle of Mohács and nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule, the region entered a new age of prosperity in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Budapest became a global city after its unification in 1873. It also became the second capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a great power that dissolved in 1918, following World War I. Budapest was the focal point of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Hungarian Republic of Councils in 1919, the Battle of Budapest in 1945, and the Revolution of 1956.

Cited as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, Budapest’s extensive World Heritage Site includes the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrássy Avenue, Heroes’ Square and the Millennium Underground Railway, the second-oldest metro line in the world. It has around 80 geothermal springs, the world’s largest thermal water cave system, second largest synagogue, and third largest Parliament building. The city attracts about 4.4 million tourists a year, making it the 25th most popular city in the world, and the 6th in Europe, according to Euromonitor. 

Considered a financial hub in Central Europe, the city ranked third on Mastercard’s Emerging Markets Index, and ranked as the most liveable Central or Eastern European city on EIU’s quality of life index. It is also ranked as “the world’s second best city” by Condé Nast Traveler, and “Europe's 7th most idyllic place to live” by Forbes. Eighteen universities are situated in Budapest, including the Central European University, Eötvös Loránd University and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

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ART SUNDAY - IMRE ÁMOS

“The Holocaust illustrates the consequences of prejudice, racism and stereotyping on a society. It forces us to examine the responsibilities of citizenship and confront the powerful ramifications of indifference and inaction.” - Tim Holden

Imre Ámos (1907 in Nagykálló, Hungary – 1944 or 1945 in Ohrdruf, Germany) was a twentieth century Hungarian Jewish painter. Following his studies at the Technical University, Budapest from 1927 to 1929, he enrolled in the Art School where he was a pupil of Gyula Rudnay. He married Margit Anna, also a painter.

His painting was initially influenced by József Rippl-Rónai and Róbert Berény. From the mid-1930s onwards, his style emulated that of Chagall whose influence affected his artwork in his paintings such as ‘The Old Church Servant Thinks of Heaven’, and ‘The Dream of Bear Leader’. In 1936, he was elected to be a member of the New Society of Artists, which entailed working in Szentendre during the summer months.

He visited Paris in 1937 where he met Chagall. Ámos became a member of the National Salon in 1938. Some of his works show the influence of legends about the famous Chassidic Kaliver Rebbe, Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Taub (1744–1828), who was also from Nagykálló.

In 1940 during World War II he became a victim of the Holocaust because he was Jewish. He was taken to a forced labour camp in Vojvodina, then to the battlefield in the east. In 1944 he was deported to a concentration camp in Saxony where he later died cruelly. Throughout the war he painted about his tragic experiences in shocking visions such as ‘A Series of Dark Times’, ‘Escaping’, and ‘War’.

He died aged only 37 or 38. Some of the works by Imre Ámos and his wife can be seen in the Museum of Margit Anna and Imre Ámos in Szentendre. On 23 June 2014, the Jewish Historical Institute opened the exhibit “Where is your brother? - Imre Ámos and the 20th century.”

The painting above is “Sötet Idok VIII: Ember par Apokalipszis ben”. I have been unable to find a good translation of this title, but it encapsulates the notion of a dark couple in an apocalyptic setting. It is a rich yet sombre work, looking toward the past but somehow being oddly prophetic too. It has the immediate appeal of a depiction of a couple enjoying music and literature (perhaps Abelard and Heloise?), but in the background through the open window, the world seems to be collapsing, as it was happening in WWII Europe…

MUSIC SATURDAY - LISZT HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY No2

“Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.” - Charles de Gaulle

Franz Liszt (22 October 1811, Doborján, Hungary [now Raiding, Burgenland, Austria] - 31 July 1886, Bayreuth, Germany [pneumonia]), the virtuoso pianist and composer, was the most famous concert superstar of the 19th century. He was born in what was then the Austrian Empire. His father was Hungarian and his mother was Austrian. At age 6 he took music lessons from his father, Adam Liszt, who worked at the Court of Count Esterhazy, the main sponsor of Liszt’s education and career.

Liszt continued his music studies in Vienna under Carl Czerny and Antonio Salieri. In 1823, at the young age of 12, Liszt moved with his parents to Paris. There he enjoyed an early friendship with Frédéric Chopin, but later they became rivals. At that time young Liszt began his career of a travelling virtuoso. He was adulated all-over Europe, from Ireland to Russia. His concert performances included his own compositions, regarded by many as the most difficult piano music ever written.

His elegant, worldly manners in combination with diabolic cynicism and his impressive stage presence and supernatural virtuosity gave cause for rumors, that he must have made a deal with the Devil. His “Mephisto Waltz” depicts the Devil playing a Paganini-style violin on the piano. Franz Liszt became a friend of many important cultural figures of his time. He attended the Paris premiere of the “Symphonie Fantastique” by Hector Berlioz and the two composers became good friends. Liszt shared mutual respect with Mikhail Glinka. He also admired Aleksandr Borodin and promoted his first symphony for performances in Western Europe.

Liszt was a friend of Richard Wagner, who was Liszt’s son-in-law, until their differences led to cooler relationship in their later years. Liszt’s influence on his fellow musicians was legendary. He made superb piano transcriptions of symphonies, operas and large orchestral works of other composers, such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Hector Berlioz, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Wagner. Operas and symphonies in Liszt’s transcriptions became valuable repertoire of many pianists. Liszt lived and travelled with the married Countess Marie D’Agoult for 12 years and they had three children.

In 1847, in Russia, Liszt met the beautiful and wealthy Princess Carolyne Wittgenstein, who soon left her husband for Liszt. In 1848 he became the Director of Music at the Court of Weimar. There, living with Carolyne in her mansion, he composed and revised his most important music, including the “Dream of Love”, dedicated to Carolyne. The Church did not allow Liszt to marry Carolyne and also did not allow Carolyne to divorce Wittgenstein, with whom she had a daughter.

In 1861 Liszt settled in Rome where Carolyne bought a home and they tried to marry again, but the Church did not terminate Carolyne’s marriage until her husband died in 1864. She then changed her mind and lived with unmarried Liszt, who was stuck in this painful situation until the end of his life. Under her influence, he became a religious man and in 1865 Pope admitted Liszt into Holy Orders and commissioned the church music. Since 1870s Liszt taught at the Budapest Conservatory and also participated with Wagner in several concert events in Bayreuth. He spent his last years between Rome, Weimar, Budapest and Bayreuth, where he died in 1886.

Here is Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.2, originally written for solo piano, which comes to life in its orchestral version in this fiery performance by the Cologne New Philharmonic conducted by Volker Hartung. Recorded live at Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Germany in March 2012.

FRANZ'S JUNIPER IN THE VATICAN

“If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory eventually turns into a defeat.” - Simone de Beauvoir
 
Today is Somalia’s Revolution (National) Day II (since 1960); Vatican City’s - National Day and also an Egyptian Day (Dismal Day). Up until the 17th century in England, the Egyptian Days were commonly thought to be specific unlucky days throughout the year. Popular almanacs would list them as days on which to avoid such important activities as weddings, blood letting (a standard way of treating various illnesses), and travelling. No one knew why certain days were considered unlucky. In fact, which days were Egyptian Days seems to have depended upon which almanac was consulted; apparently, there was never any standard list that was widely circulated. Although it is not known for sure why they were referred to as the Egyptian Days, it’s possible that they were first computed by Egyptian astrologers or were somehow related to the Egyptian plagues. They were known as the Dismal Days, from Latin dies mali (meaning “evil days”).
 
Today is the anniversary of the birth of:
Franz Liszt, composer (1811);
Sarah Bernhardt, French actress (1844);
Ivan Bunin, Nobel laureate (1933) writer (1870);
Sidney Kingsley, writer (1906);
Joan Fontaine (Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland), actress (1917);
Doris Lessing, author (1919);
Robert Rauschenberg, painter (1925);
Christopher Lloyd, actor (1938);
Annette Funicello, actress (1942);
Catherine Deneuve (Catherine Dorléac), French actress (1943);
Jeff Goldblum, actor (1952);
 
Savine, Juniperus sabina, is the plant that is assigned to birthdays falling on this day.  In the past, “wicked women have employed it to very ill purposes”, its effects on the uterus being used to induce abortions.  The plant is quite poisonous and modern herbalists do not use it internally.  In the language of flowers, savine means: “The fruits of love may sometimes be bitter”.  Astrologically, this is under the rule of Mars.
 
Today is the anniversary of the day in 4004 BC, that God created the Universe, according to James Ussher (1581–1656), an Irish Protestant prelate and scholar. He was archbishop of Armagh (1625) and was greatly admired for his learning. He established a chronology of the bible that set the date of creation at 4004 BC which was long used in some editions of the King James Version of the Bible.  His chronology is described in The Annals of the World (1650).  Perhaps it is no chance that this day was chosen to celebrate as the National Day of Vatican City!
 
Franz Liszt (1811–1886) was a Hungarian composer of romantic music, acknowledged as the greatest pianist of his time. He studied with Czerny and his expressive, flamboyant and dramatic playing enraptured his audiences.  Liszt taught most of the major pianists of the next generation. He originated the symphonic poem and developed “programme music” to a high art.
 
Some of his famous works are Les Préludes  and Mazeppa (1856). The Sonata in B Minor of 1853  was marked by the transformation of themes thus changing the face of the classical sonata form.  Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss were both admiring of his works and were influenced by him.  His piano works include the Paganini Études (1851); concertos; and Hungarian Rhapsodies.  One of his characteristic pieces that I like is the Fantasy Based on Hungarian Folk Melodies of 1853.
 
On this day in 1979, Nadia Boulanger (16 September 1887 – 22 October 1979), French composition teacher died. She was a composer, conductor, and teacher who taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century. She also performed as a pianist and organist.
 
From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire but, believing that she had no particular talent as a composer, she gave up writing music and became a teacher. In that capacity, she influenced generations of young composers, especially those from the United States and other English-speaking countries. Among her students were those who became leading composers, soloists, and conductors, including Aaron Copland, John Eliot Gardiner, Dinu Lipatti, Igor Markevitch, Quincy Jones, Philip Glass, and Ástor Piazzolla.
 
Boulanger taught in the US and England, working with music academies including the Juilliard School, the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Longy School, the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, but her principal base for most of her life was her family's flat in Paris, where she taught for most of the seven decades from the start of her career until her death at the age of 92.
 
Boulanger was the first woman to conduct many major orchestras in America and Europe, including the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony, Hallé, New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia orchestras. She conducted several world premieres, including works by Copland and Stravinsky.

SONG SATURDAY - FRANZ LISZT

“Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul” – Plato

It is the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt’s birthday today. This Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer was born on the 22nd of October 1811, at Raiding, in Hungary, and he died at Bayreuth, Germany, 31st July, 1886. His appeal to musicians is threefold: There was Liszt the unrivalled pianoforte virtuoso (1830-48); Liszt the conductor of the “music of the future” at Weimar, the teacher of Tausig, Bülow and a host of lesser pianists, the eloquent writer on music and musicians, the champion of Berlioz and Wagner (1848-61); and Liszt the prolific composer, who for some 35 years continued to put forth pianoforte pieces, songs, symphonic orchestral pieces, cantatas, masses, psalms and oratorios (1847-82).

Liszt’s musical precocity was recognized early by his parents, and his first teacher was his father, Adam Liszt, a musical amateur of rare culture. His son’s first public appearance at Oedenburg at the age of nine was so startling, that several Hungarian magnates who were present assumed the financial responsibilities of Liszt’s further musical education. Taken to Vienna by his father, who devoted himself exclusively to the development of his talented child, he studied the piano for six years with Czerny, and theory and composition with Salieri and Randhartinger.

His first public appearance in Vienna (1st January, 1823) proved a noteworthy event in the annals of music. From Beethoven, who was present, down to the merest dilettante, everyone immediately acknowledged his great genius. His entry to the Paris Conservatory, where his father wished him to continue his studies, and which at the time was under Cherubini, proved unsuccessful on account of his not being a native of France. His studies, however, under Reicha and Paer, made the youthful prodigy one of the most conspicuous figures of the French capital. His one act opera, “Don Sanche”, as well as his piano compositions, achieved a flattering success. His brilliant concert tours in Switzerland and England enhanced an already established reputation.

His father’s death (1827) made Liszt the main supporter of his mother, but the temporary hardship disappeared when he began his literary and teaching career. His charming personality, conversational brilliancy, and transcendent musical ability opened the world of fashion, wealth and intellect to him. His intimacy with Meyerbeer and his friendship with Chopin, whose biographer he subsequently became, kept alive and fostered his interest in his art.

An alliance (1834-44) with the Countess d’Agoult resulted in three children. A son who died early, Blandina, who became the wife of Emile Ollivier, Minister of Justice to Napoleon III, and Cosima, first the wife of Hans von Bülow, then of Richard Wagner, owner of Villa Wahnfried, Bayreuth. The rupture of this liaison signalled the beginning of his dazzling career as a virtuoso pianist without peer or rival. His concert tours throughout Europe evoked an unparalleled enthusiasm and the doors of the nobility opened wide for him.

His twelve years at Weimar (1849-61), where he assumed the proffered position of court conductor, were years of intensive activity. He supervised the court concerts and operatic performances, bringing them to a perfection that made the small provincial town of Weimar synonymous with the highest achievements in music. During this period he also gave the world a series of notable piano compositions, and even more notable choral and orchestral works, that have been very influential musically.

His support of Wagner and some of his composition pupils that were not publicly popular caused him to resign his position as court conductor in 1861. After his resignation he lived in turn at Rome, Budapest, and Weimar. Religion which was only temporarily overshadowed began playing an active part in his life again. As early as 1856 or 1858 he became a Franciscan tertiary. He received minor orders from Cardinal Hohenlohe in his private chapel at the Vatican on 25th April, 1865. His career of twenty-one years as an abbé was most exemplary and punctilious as he was in the performance of his ecclesiastical duties, his interest in his art continued unabated. He succumbed to an acute attack of pneumonia at the home of a friend, near Wagner’s Villa Wahnfried and was buried, without pomp or display, in the Bayreuth cemetery.

Here is a beautiful contemplative piece for piano, Liszt’s “Consolation No. 3”, S. 172, played by the great Vladimir Horowitz.

SONG SATURDAY - PASTORALE

“Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more.” - Vincent van Gogh

We took it easy today with the day being relaxing and restful. As well as doing our regular Saturday morning shopping and chores, we also ended up going to Yarambat to the Rivers Nursery as we needed some plants, but because it is also a lovely place to visit. The place was looking wonderful today with all of the Spring flowers in bloom, the ducks out in full force in the pond, and the lovely smell of freshly brewed coffee wafting out from the café. It was a pleasure to walk there and we ended up buying more plants than we had initially gone in for, but the variety and the Spring weather were big temptations not easy to resist.

In keeping with the Spring weather and the pastoral expedition, here is the Fantaisie Pastorale Hongroise Op.26 by Albert Franz Doppler for flute played by Jean Pierre Rampal.

ART SUNDAY - VASARELY

“Every form is a base for colour, every colour is the attribute of a form.” - Victor Vasarely

For Art Sunday today, the art of Victor Vasarely, or in his native Hungarian: Viktor Vásárhelyi   (born, April 9th, 1908, Pécs, Hungary – died March 15th, 1997, Paris, France). He was a painter of geometric abstractions who became one of the leading figures of the “Op Art” movement. Vasarely was trained as an artist in Budapest in the Bauhaus tradition. In 1930 he left Hungary and settled in Paris, where he initially supported himself as a commercial artist but continued to do his own work.

During the 1930s he was influenced by Constructivism, but by the 1940s his characteristic style of painting animated surfaces of geometric forms and interacting colours had emerged. His style reached maturity in the mid-1950s and 1960s, when he began using brighter, more vibrant colours to further enhance the suggestion of movement through optical illusion. Vasarely became a naturalised French citizen in 1959. Much of his work is housed in the Vasarely Museum, at the Château de Gourdes, in Vaucluse Département, southern France. In 1970 he established the Vasarely Foundation, which in 1976 took up quarters near Aix-en-Provence in a building that he designed.

For those of you with a Macintosh computer, download a free MacApp called “Kortil”. It is a virtual exhibition of Vasarely’s works in the Kortil Gallery in Rijeka, Croatia. Courtesy of the Regional Museum Janus Pannonius in Pécs, which has a collection of Vasarely’s works, the Rijeka Gallery hosted an exhibition in association with the City of Rijeka Department of Culture. Through modern technology, we too may enjoy this exhibition on our computer screen through a virtual gallery space.

GOULASH

“Every man who possibly can should force himself to a holiday of a full month in a year, whether he feels like taking it or not.” - William James

Well, I took Wiliam James’ advice and forced myself to have a holiday. I shall have eight days off rather than a month, but already I am greatly looking forward to it. We have nothing planned, but who knows, we may go away or we may stay at home. It all depends on what is available and how we feel. One thing is for certain, I shall not be at work on Monday!

Another wonderful winter dish for today’s Food Friday. I remember visiting Budapest many years ago, now and tasting the authentic version of this dish in a little tavern in the suburbs – it was delicious!

HUNGARIAN GOULASH
Ingredients
60     g butter
2    tablespoonfuls of oil
1    kg lean stewing steak cut into 2 cm cubes
1/2    kg onions
1    clove garlic, crushed
2    tablespoonfuls paprika
150    mL water
1    bay leaf
1/2    kg small new potatoes, peeled
salt and ground pepper to taste
sour cream.

Method
Melt the butter with the oil in the cooking saucepan and add the beef cubes when the fat is very hot, browning quickly on all sides. As the meat is sealed, remove from the pan and reserve. Add the chopped onion and cook until golden. Add the paprika, salt, pepper and garlic, the water and bay leaf. Return the beef cubes to the pan and stir to coat them thoroughly with the sauce. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about an hour. Stir in the potatoes and continue simmering for a further hour until cooked. Remove the bay leaf and spoon goulash into warmed bowls, spooning the sour cream on top. Serve with a gutsy shiraz or cabernet.