Productions that include works by Liszt are the highlights of the festival. At the House of Music Hungary, the Hungarian National Male Choir will dedicate an entire evening to the composer’s lesser-known choral works, written between 1838 and 1847, while at a large-scale concert in Müpa Budapest, János Palojtay and the Gürzenich Orchestra from Cologne will include two works of virtuosity in the programme of what is yet another international co-production. Standing on the platform this evening will be the great Colombian violinist and conductor, Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Nor is Natalie Tenenbaum a stranger to Liszt’s music: the pianist, who keeps breaking down generic boundaries consistently and inventively, will appear in concert at MOMKult. Her post-classical album, entitled Standard Repertoire Vol. 1, includes her own compositions, as well as paraphrases of works by Bach, Stravinsky, Debussy, Liszt and others. The Israeli Chamber Project, which features world-class soloists, including one of the Budapest Festival Orchestra’s concertmasters, will perform works by Debussy, Stravinsky, Bartók and Ravel, as well as Saint-Saëns’s arrangement of a piece by Liszt. Presented at the Budapest Music Center after the Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and the Wigmore Hall in London, this chamber music concert promises a truly varied assortment of treats. The BMC will also be the venue for a concert of works by Lukas Ligeti. We will get a taste of the incredibly compelling work of the composer, who boldly experiments with African traditions, electronica and contemporary chamber music, courtesy of singer Julie Vercauteren, marimba player Caitlin Jones, the Ensemble Hopper and the Mivos Quartet. And if you want to see Lukas Ligeti in person, you should go to the concert of Hypercolor, an avant-garde jazz group from New York who have been playing together for two decades and will now be joined by Kornél Fekete-Kovács, a major figure in the Hungarian jazz scene. The Danubia Orchestra will also make the most of its international connections at its concert with Argentinian conductor Mariano Chiacchiarini, filling the concert hall with exhilarating rhythms from South America. This evening will see the Hungarian premiere of the Portuguese Igor C. Silva’s Sōma, a new work for jazz quartet, electronics and symphony orchestra, which was commissioned by the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO).

The questions of visuality and perception will also feature in other art forms: the Ludwig Museum’s exhibition, Golden Repair, explores the concepts of fracture and healing, wound and repair in a broader context, based on the ancient Japanese technique of kintsugi. The Hungarian National Gallery honours Adolf Fényes, a remarkable Hungarian painter who was active at the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century with a Memorial Exhibition. Also, it is now a tradition that Art Market Budapest, the most important international contemporary art fair in Central and Eastern Europe and the largest art exhibition in Hungary, is part of the Liszt Fest. It will now be held at a new venue, the MTK Sportpark.

UMZE will take us back to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries with a concert commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of Erik Satie and focusing on his close interest in music for film. Along with a reconstruction of his film score, the concert will premiere new compositions written for the avant-garde films of the period in question, by Marcell Dargay, Dániel Dinyés, Balázs Horváth, Martin Matalon, László Tihanyi and Gergely Vajda.

One of the unique new attractions of this year’s Liszt Fest is a large-scale, immersive theatre production by the world-famous Recirquel. Walk My World invites its audience inside a monumental, 6000-square metre space that brings to mind film sets—a mythic universe where magical creatures come to life. Told in the language of dance and contemporary circus, featuring captivating visuals and affecting all the senses, the story can now be seen by the Budapest audience at a preview performance that involves the viewers in the creative process. The company will make use of the experience in its November premiere. Alongside the grandiose epic of Recirquel, the philosophical and lyrical production of Artus seeks answers to the deepest questions of existence through the art of movement. Fata morgana is an apocalyptic vision of man’s estrangement from himself, which tells about healing empathy through dance, animation, video and literature. The production, which is based on the writings of Béla Hamvas and Lautréamont, has music that draws upon five works by László Melis, paying homage to the composer’s spirit and art.

Contemporary pop music will be represented, among others, by the concert of Galaxisok, who have been making music together for twelve years. Drawing on the large set of their ‘neglected’ creations, they will concentrate on the piano-based songs and others rarely performed, transporting their audience into the parallel reality of an alternative oeuvre. Benedek Szabó, the singer-songwriter of the formation, will also make an appearance at one of the literary events of the festival, Lili Kemény’s evening. In Müpa Budapest, László Valuska will talk to the Margó Prize-winning author, whose provocative autobiographical novel caused quite a stir last year, about the work that causes her to stand out in her generation and its critical reception. The Autumn Margó Literary Festival will again bring the best of contemporary Hungarian literature to the festival, presenting new works and trending authors at the Millenáris, and spicing up the book launches and discussions with musical treats.

This year’s iteration of the Point Festival, a colourful day of free events for families, will introduce the varied culture of Serbia and the Balkans: there will be South Slavic tunes to entertain young and old, who can try their hands at crafts and animation, and can learn songs and dances.