Hungarian diaspora
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György Cziffra
World-renowned Hungarian-born pianist and virtuoso
(5 November 1921., Budapest – 15 January 1994., Longpont-sur-Orge)
We can reminisce in many different ways – but remembering György Cziffra, the pianist who would break out from completely hopeless situations time and again during his life and who finally and deservedly accomplished worldfame is only possible in a single way: as he looked upon himself: a phoenix.
His childhood was everything but easy: the family expelled from France lived in such housing conditions in Budapest that could by no means be called ideal for a child prodigy. Indeed, a child prodigy, as at the age of eight, he was discovered by Ernő Dohnányi and could begin his piano studies at the Liszt Academy.
His promising career was first smashed into pieces by the Second World War, the Russian prison camp, and finally three years of prison and labour camp following a failed emigration attempt in 1950. Cziffra, who was making ends meet by playing in bars, managed to take to the stage again in the mid-1950s thanks to the help of fellow-mu
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English translation by John Hornsby of György Cziffra jr.'s French version of the Hungarian manuscript.
Cziffra and his son György (1959)
Soleilka Cziffra
György Cziffra, a giant among pianists of the twentieth century, was born in Budapest on 5th November, 1921 and died on 15th January, 1994. Born with outstanding talent in circumstances of dire poverty ' such mixed fortunes were to be his lot all his life - he survived war, imprisonment, hard labour as a political prisoner, his hands and wrists seemingly permanently damaged, he survived to fight back and rebuild his career, improvising in nightclubs until in 1956 he escaped with his family to the West and became the idol of audiences and arned the admiration of colleagues as diverse as Alfred Cortot and Martha Argerich. However, a critical clique turned savagely against him, all the more when his wrists began to suffer under the strain of constant tours. Yet he achieved another dream: to create a foundation to help young musicians, which he did at Senlis, north east
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György Cziffra
MUSICIAN
1921 - 1994
György Cziffra
Christian Georges Cziffra (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈɟørɟ ˈt͡sifrɒ]; born Cziffra Krisztián György; 5 November 1921 – 15 January 1994) was a Hungarian-French virtuoso pianist and composer. He is considered to be one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of the twentieth century. Read more on Wikipedia
Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of György Cziffra has received more than 197,806 page views. His biography is available in 30 different languages on Wikipedia. György Cziffra is the 217th most popular musician (down from 159th in 2019), the 113th most popular biography from Hungary (down from 85th in 2019) and the most popular Hungarian Musician.
György Cziffra was a Hungarian pianist and composer. He is most famous for his interpretations of the music of Franz Liszt.
Memorability Metrics
200k
Page Views (PV)
66.75
Historical Popularity Index (HPI)
30
Languages Editions (L)
7.69
Effective Languages (L*)
2.07
Coefficient of Variation (CV)
Among MUSICIANS
Among musicians, Gyö
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