The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music mourns the death of the Kossuth and Liszt prize-winning pianist, Jenő Jandó

by كاتب:Beth

Jenő Jandó, Kossuth and Liszt Prize-winning pianist, former piano teacher at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest and legendary figure of the domestic and international concert scene, died on Tuesday at his home in Budapest, aged 72, the higher education institution informed MTI on Tuesday.

Jenő Jandó. Photo courtesy Székely Hírmondó

The Academy of Music considers the pianist to be its own dead, and arrangements for his funeral will be made later – is stated in the announcement by the Academy of Music.

Jenő Jandó was born on February 1, 1952 in Pécs. He started studying piano in his hometown. In 1968 he was admitted to the Academy of Music, where he was a student of Katalin Nemes and Pál Kadosa. His career began with successful performances in domestic and international competitions: he was third in the 1970 Budapest Beethoven Piano Competition, second in the 1972 György Cziffra Versailles and 1975 Milan Dino Ciani competitions and in 1973 at the Magyar Rádió Piano Competition. 

In 1977 he won first prize in the chamber music category at the International Piano Competition in Sydney.

In 1974, immediately after obtaining his diploma, he started teaching at the Academy of Music, where he trained dozens of generations of pianists until 2020.

Jenő Jandó was one of the most active participants in the Hungarian musical scene, giving very successful concerts in Europe, America and Japan. He worked with conductors such as János Ferencsik, Ádám Fischer, Zoltán Kocsis, Lamberto Gardelli, András Ligeti, Giuseppe Patané, Zoltán Peskó, Jurij Simonov and Antoni Wit. He became the soloist of Hungaroton, Laserlight, and then Naxos. With hundreds of recordings he was probably the busiest pianist on the Hungarian record market.

As an initiated performer of classical music, his repertoire included all the piano sonatas of Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert, as well as 27 piano concertos by Mozart, but his Liszt and Bartók performances were also often praised. In 1992, his recording of Liszt’s posthumous piano concerto was recognised with the International Record Prize of the Liszt Society.

For his work, he received the Ferenc Liszt Award in 1980, the Merited Artist Award in 1987, the Bartók Pásztory Award in 1995, the Kossuth Award in 1997, the Hungarian Classical Music Award in 2004 and the Béla Bartók Memorial Award in 2006. In 2014 he received the Prima Award.

 

The Academy of Music considers Jenő Jandó to be its own dead man. Arrangements will be made for the pianist’s funeral later, the Academy of Music said in a statement.

First published and translated from Hungarian at Hungary Posts in English, July 5, 2023