27/08/2026
György Cziffra playing for a small group of friends in Morsang-sur-Orge, France: practicing Liszt’s Étude No. 10 alongside a few finger exercises in the home movie from 1993. Recorded just a year before his death and five years after his retirement from the concert stage.
There is something deeply moving about seeing one of history’s greatest virtuosos in such an intimate setting, away from the big concert halls.
Born in Budapest to a poor Romani musician family, Cziffra was a true child prodigy, entering the prestigious Franz Liszt Academy at just 9 years old. Despite surviving WWII labor camps, imprisonment, and years of hard physical labor, he rose to become one of the most astonishing Franz Liszt interpreters of the 20th century.
Gyorgy Cziffra, Franz Liszt, Etude, piano practice, rare piano footage, piano history, virtuoso pianist, classical piano archival • piano exercises • practicing piano