“The church composer is also a preacher and a priest, and where the word is no longer sufficient to express the sentiment, music transfigures it and lifts it aloft,” said Ferenc Liszt. Composed with exceptional care, the music of the Esztergom Mass perfectly exemplifies a composer transforming into a preacher and priest. The first performance of the piece, at the 1856 consecration of the Esztergom Basilica, was conducted by the composer himself. At the Liszt Fest, the mass will be performed by great solo singers and the Pannon Philharmonic under the baton of Róbert Farkas.
The original premiere attracted much attention, in part because Liszt had not visited Hungary for a long time. “This music is so religious,” wrote an especially enthusiastic listener, “that it could convert Satan himself.” Liszt considered it an important work, and wrote in a letter to a friend: “You may be sure that I did not compose my work as one might put on a church vestment instead of an overcoat, but that it sprang from the truly fervent faith of my heart, such as I have felt since my childhood. I can truly say that my mass has been more prayed than composed.”