Gusztáv Fenyő
Since settling in Glasgow in 1980, Gusztáv Fenyő has been one of Scotland’s leading musicians. He is well-known for his cycles of works by one composer, including Beethoven’s 32 Sonatas, which he performed in both Glasgow and Edinburgh. In 1999, to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer’s death, he performed the complete solo piano works of Chopin in Glasgow, opposite the venue where Chopin himself played in 1848. In 2006 he gave the first complete Glasgow performance of Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes & Fugues at the refurbished City Halls, in celebration of the composer’s centenary.
A descendant of the great Hungarian violinist, Joseph Joachim, Gusztáv Fenyő first came into prominence as a teenager when he won the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s annual concerto competition playing Liszt’s E flat concerto. Following a period of study in London with Schnabel’s disciple, Maria Curcio, he continued his studies under Pál Kadosa at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, during which time he gave numerous Hungarian premičres by composers such as Stockhausen, Boulez, Xenakis, Cage and Takemitsu, as well as having many works written for him.
At his London début at the Wigmore Hall in 1978, Gusztáv Fenyő premičred some of the 'Games' by the then barely-known Hungarian composer György Kurtág. He has since played a comprehensive solo, chamber and concerto repertoire, from Bach to the present day, in three continents. Orchestras have included the Philharmonia (London), BBC Scottish, Hungarian Radio & Television, Bucharest Philharmonic, and the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, under conductors such as Frémaux, Osawa, Iwaki and Fürst. He regularly performs with violinist Susanne Stanzeleit, and other chamber music partners have included violinists Alexander Janiczek and Jack Liebeck, violists James Boyd and Roger Chase, cellists Adrian Brendel and Raphael Wallfisch, clarinettists Gervase de Peyer and Michael Collins, and fellow pianists Zoltán Kocsis and Balázs Szokolay.
Gusztáv Fenyő has broadcast for the BBC, Australian Broadcasting Commission and Hungarian Radio, and his commercial recordings include works by Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Delius and Bartók.
From 1980 to 1992 he was Lecturer of Piano at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He has also given masterclasses in leading institutions in the UK, USA, Australia and Hungary, working alongside such distinguished teachers as Vesselin Paraschkevov and Felix Andrievsky.