Saying farewell to beauty is always a sad affair

The Liszt Ferenc Chorus was founded at the end of 1990 with the artistic aim of presenting predominantly East-European choral music in the Netherlands and in other lands. During the ensuing sixteen years this aim was amply fulfilled. The choir attracted professional, semi-professional and well-trained amateur singers to become one of the Netherlands’ best amateur choirs. Various foreign tours and successful concerts in, amongst other locations, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw followed. The last concert was given in March 2007 as part of the Budapest Spring Festival.

During its existence, the choir made around ten recordings for CD, including the complete religious oeuvre of Mihály Mosonyi (Michael Brand), contemporary and friend of Franz Liszt. This series appeared on the Hungaroton label. The Dutch-Hungarian pianist and composer Géza Frid also received due attention: in 2006 there appeared a CD presenting some of his relatively unknown choral works.

In the end the choir ceased to exist. Predominantly for financial reasons. It proved impossible to find a new main sponsor. Because concerts hardly ever break even, after all those years the foundation was forced to seek support from the various funding bodies, with varying success. The concert in Budapest was made possible through the generous support of the Dutch Embassy there and of the festival itself. But the end of the story is that the choir was in fact found to be too professional for support as an amateur choir and on the other hand too ‘amateur’ for the sources that support professional institutions. It also became increasingly difficult to find suitable replacements for retiring members of the foundation’s executive committee.

The choir looks back with pleasure and fitting pride on those successful years and is pleased that the CD’s remain as a permanent reminder of them.

This website is kept ‘on air’ in honour of the many people – singers, conductor, manager and sponsors – who worked hard but with considerable pleasure to achieve all this.

Various CD’s can still be ordered.

Secretariat of the Liszt Ferenc Chorus:
Prins Bernhardlaan 11
3645 DD Vinkeveen
The Netherlands
Telephone: (+31) (0)297 263044
(for contact in English: (+31) (0)36 5364334)
Fax: (+31) (0)297 263498
E-mail: info@lisztferencchorus.nl
E-mail in English: lisztcho@xs4all.nl