Gyorgy Cziffra; Renowned Performer of Liszt’s Works

Hungarian-born pianist Gyorgy Cziffra, best known for his brilliant performances of Franz Liszt’s rhapsodies, has died, relatives said Sunday. He was 72.

Cziffra died Saturday of a heart attack at a Paris hospital.

Living in exile since the 1956 Soviet-led invasion of Hungary, Cziffra had a home in Senlis, northeast of Paris, where he ran a foundation for young musicians and artists.

Born of Gypsy descent in 1921 in Budapest, Cziffra started performing at an early age and rapidly gained international fame with his renditions of the works of Liszt, the 19th-Century Hungarian pianist and composer.

Cziffra made two major visits to Los Angeles--performing at the Hollywood Bowl in 1957 and Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium in 1984.

The pianist, Times writer Daniel Cariaga noted after the 1984 performance, “commands a technique of superlative digital and sound resources; plays the piano in an old-fashioned, improvisatory, irresistible manner and makes music almost offhandedly.”

A prisoner of the Red Army during World War II, Cziffra was sentenced to three years forced labor in the 1950s for trying to escape from Communist Hungary.

He took his family into exile in 1956 and became a French citizen in 1968, adopting the French first name Georges.

The pianist recounted his life in a book, “Guns and Flowers.”

A spokeswoman for Cziffra’s foundation, the Saint-Frambourg Royal Chapel, said he set it up in 1973 “to spare young artists the misery he lived through.”

Cziffra also founded an annual music festival at the medieval abbey of La Chaise Dieu, in central France.