Reverie & Reality: Austro-Hungary meets Bohemia – Helmut Deutsch

For generations, the noble family of the House of Szechenyi have played a decisive role in shaping Hungary’s destiny. Katharina Ruckgaber and Tamas Egresi, accompanied by Helmut Deutsch, have compiled a representative selection of songs from the large repertoire of poems and compositions; an impressive testimony to the wide-ranging interests talents of one of Europe’s most important aristocratic families.

The Szechenyi family were ardent music lovers and socialised in the highest circles of Europe. They cultivated cultural exchange and were also creatively active themselves. Franz Schubert composed two songs to poems by Lajos Szechenyi at the age of 20. He later dedicated Death and the Maiden to Lajos. showing his great appreciation for the family’s commitments to arts and culture.

Franciska Szechenyi is regarded as Hungary’s first woman composer. Katharina Ruckgaber performs her songs alternately with a fairy tale entitles The Message of the White Rider based on her life. Imre Ill Szechenyi was only 10 years old when he wrote his first opus 1. At 16 he fought in the First World War and at the age of 23 he died of diptheria just shortly after he was wed.

Another branch of the family were the von Tascheks from Bohemia. Franziska von Taschek’s complete works are included here, saved by her granddaughter as she fled her home. All other works were lost as a result of the expulsion of German-speakers from Bohemia in 1945.