{"id":10232,"date":"2013-12-19T11:22:08","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T10:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meonline.hu\/?p=10232"},"modified":"2014-01-17T10:33:20","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T09:33:20","slug":"akademiai-osszhangzattan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meonline.hu\/en\/archivum\/akademiai-osszhangzattan\/","title":{"rendered":"Academic Harmony"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Reconstruction of the Music Palace<\/strong><\/p>\n

Architects: \u00c9va Magyari, B\u00e9la Paz\u00e1r, Ferenc Potzner <\/strong>
\nText: Gy\u00f6rgy Szeg\u0151 <\/strong>
\nPhotos: J\u00f3zsef Hajd\u00fa <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Fot\u00f3:<\/p>\n

More than a century ago, the foundation of the Music Academy (1875) followed by the construction of the building after designs by Fl\u00f3ris Korb and K\u00e1lm\u00e1n Giergl (1907) was a cause with the potential to create culture, scale beauty and build a community. In the wake of Ferenc Liszt, the high standards of education and concerts established international fame for the Budapest-based Music Academy within a few decades. It is not any different now, when the building was facelifted. Architecture has erected a sacred house to music with the primacy of Art Nouveau style comprising all its genres. Architecture was born here, which means that reconstruction and extension now was an enormous challenge for the team of designers, Magyari\u2013Paz\u00e1r\u2013Potzner, just like for all associated artists and contractors contributing to the project.<\/p>\n

Architecture today is surrounded by a maze of confusing and confused ideas reflecting depreciation. However, I was lucky enough to experience the old-time enthusiasm. 25 years ago, when the reconstruction project was rescheduled by the changes, I could see no hope for the revival of handicraftsmanship. Now it is a genuine holiday that the reconstruction of almost 3000 m\u00b2 expanse of stone, 6000 m\u00b2 interior decoration, 400 m\u00b2 Zsolnay ceramic tiling, almost the same expanse of leaded stained glass, mosaics, ornate fountains, bronze sculptures \u2013 based on in-depth studies \u2013 was completed in two years by instaurators and the subcontractors\u2019 infrastructure which was recovering after touching the bottom. \u201eFinal touches\u201d of restoring the building to its original glory was, however, preceded by static and engineering upgrading, minor extensions in the basement and cupola level, installing the new stage techniques of the Minor Hall, the state-of-art engineering housed on a 25 metre 33 ton steel bridge above the organ. Hoisting in the bridge was a true bravado of engineering and logistics. The epochal success of innovation entailed the success of the latter: it is based on the durability of the first Hungarian R-C frame made by Zielinsky Szil\u00e1rd who worked in Paris in 1903\u201305.
\nThe renovation made in a hurry in the 1960s perhaps as a deliberate ideological destruction multiplied the work to be done now as it eliminated the decorative painting, recoloured the opalescent patina of the Main Hall, and slit classrooms to replace the stage loft of the Minor Hall. It was just at the time when the National Theatre was exploded a few blocks away.
\nPolitics back in those days gave the house a rough deal although the institute of the Music Academy and its teachers did indeed legendary work. They created a fantastic piano school: Ferenc Liszt, Istv\u00e1n Thom\u00e1n, \u00c1rp\u00e1d Szendy, and then there came the masters who were their apprentices: B\u00e9la Bart\u00f3k, Arnold Sz\u00e9kely, Imre Ke\u00e9ri-Sz\u00e1nt\u00f3, Ern\u0151 Dohn\u00e1nyi or Ilona Kabos who were the world-famous talents of music education. Arnold Sz\u00e9kely was the master of Annie Fischer, Andor F\u00f6ldes, Gy\u00f6rgy Solti, Antal Dor\u00e1ti, and P\u00e1l Kadosa who was the master of Dezs\u0151 R\u00e1nki, Andr\u00e1s Schiff, Zolt\u00e1n Kocsis, Ferenc Rados and Gergely Bog\u00e1nyi. Gy\u00f6rgy Cziffra was a pupil of Ke\u00e9ri-Sz\u00e1nt\u00f3. The violin school was launched by Jen\u0151 Hubay, with students such as Endre Gertler, Stefi Geyer, J\u00f3zsef Szigeti, Vilmos T\u00e1trai among many others. Then this school of international prestige was carried on by Gyula Mambrinyi, Ede Zathureczky and Imre Waldhauer. The chamber-music school features masters such as Jen\u0151 Hubay, D\u00e1vid Popper and Le\u00f3 Weiner. The Roth, Waldbauer-Kerpely, and Weiner string quartets, the Budapest Tri\u00f3, the Weiner-Sz\u00e1sz Chamber Orchestra, Bart\u00f3k String Quartet, S\u00e1ndor V\u00e9gh, Ede Banda, J\u00e1nos Starker, Mikl\u00f3s Per\u00e9nyi, Andr\u00e1s Mih\u00e1ly \u2013 and their records \u2013 are world-classic brands. The history of music respects Zolt\u00e1n Kod\u00e1ly and B\u00e9la Bart\u00f3k as pioneers of folk music research, the latter as an avantgarde composer and musician, a classic who integrated Hungarian folk music and modern music. Legendary conductors of the world\u2019s greatest orchestras contributed to the prestige of the Academy: J\u00e1nos Richter, Jen\u0151 Orm\u00e1ndy, Gy\u00f6rgy Sz\u00e9ll, Frigyes Reiner, Ferenc Fricsay, Antal Dor\u00e1ti and Gy\u00f6rgy Solti. The Minor Hall, which will be inaugurated with the Magic Flute, is going to bear Solti\u2019s name. Opened in 1907, the palace of the Music Academy is a spatial and temporal frame of this list. At that time architecture and its associated arts represented the same world-class standards. At last and primarily I wish to stress the importance of the architects, both of the original project, Fl\u00f3ris Korb and K\u00e1lm\u00e1n Giergl, as well as our contemporary ones.<\/p>\n

\"Fot\u00f3:<\/p>\n

The Korb-Giergl duo integrated the gem of the Academy into the eclectic fabric of Budapest. And besides, also finding place for Zsolnay ceramics (instaurator: L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Czifr\u00e1k), Alajos Str\u00f3bl, the artist of the monumental sculpture portraying Liszt on the fa\u00e7ade (instaurator: Szabolcs Cs\u00e1nyi), glasses and mosaics by Miksa R\u00f3th (instaurators: Mikl\u00f3s Ern\u0151 Bal\u00e1zs, Brigitta M\u00e1ria K\u00fcrt\u00f6si), the stone reliefs of the fa\u00e7ade by Str\u00f3bl, K\u00e1roly Senyei, Ede Telcs, Antal Szab\u00f3 and G\u00e9za Mar\u00f3ti (instaurator: Attila Kov\u00e1cs) or frescos by Alad\u00e1r K\u00f6r\u00f6sf\u0151i-Kriesch (instaurator: Izabella Maracsk\u00f3). Let me hereby emphasize the contribution of art historian Ferenc D\u00e1vid, the senior instaurator Andr\u00e1s Seres and Eszter Fellegi who was in charge of textiles. I am deliberately praising music and visual arts together here. Being the most abstract genres of Gesamtkunstwerk, they compel me to do so.
\nAnd now arriving at architecture itself: Korb and Giergl were outstanding architects of a Hauszmann-school comprising a whole generation. They were open to the ideals of Sezession termed as \u201emodern\u201d then, as well as to concepts of the Avantgarde which was then taking shape. (I\u2019ll return to this later.) Following this trend, let us now turn to the team of architects open towards contemporary architectural tendencies: \u00c9va Magyari, B\u00e9la Paz\u00e1r, of whose portfolio I would stress the importance of the Lutheran church in B\u00e9k\u00e1smegyer, S\u00e1ndor Palace, the reconstruction of the Pauline-Carmelite monastery in Sopronb\u00e1nfalva, and Ferenc Potzner, who joined this duo. In the case of the latter they brought about a harmonious integrity of reviving tradition and contemporary spirit. Research by Ferenc D\u00e1vid facilitated their work.
\nThe history of the institution and the architecture of its building marked out the direction to take. It is logical that they set the goal as \u201ethe original status\u201d in the spirit of salvaging values \u2013 which is both enormous responsibility and a design challenge in itself. The basement and the cupola has been extended, the couryards built in. An addition to all this is the service technology required by our age, which demanded fresh approach to the details of key importance. Decisions had to be made \u2013 such as whether or not to demolish the facework of the Minor Hall, and then restore it to its original. The ebony-imitation inlaid and coloured wall panelling of the Main Hall is also original \u2013 only a small part of it has been demolished and rebuilt, after restoring the original components on-site. The backside of the second-storey students\u2019 gallery reveals the cleared restored original surface, elsewhere repainting has not been removed, but the decorative painting was made onto it identical with the original exposed at some parts, beneath which as a first layer there is the original painting. Or, they had to preserve the amazing metal-laurel leaves comprising the air insufflator\u2019s ornamental grilles so that the intensity of air-exchange should not make \u201ewhistling\u201d noises. The need of free accessibility had to be tolerated, just like the most modern fire and safety technology (which sadly entails \u201evisual dirt\u201d), and the increased weight of the door providing sound-proofing had to be calculated, just to mention a few challenges.
\nPerhaps the most sensitive decision had to be made about the large-scale remodelling which was the subject of most debates: it was a truly architectural issue. The skylight courtyards built in now on the sides of the Main Hall received new functions. This is the key of the codes counterpointing the \u201eoriginal restoring\u201d approach and contemporary architecture. And the \u201econtemporary response\u201d proved successful. Designers were just as brave as Korb and Giergl when designing the \u201eboater-capped\u201d cupola roofing. The concrete roof landscape of Korb-Giergl covering the architectonic tradition of the \u201ewall\u201d and \u201eroof\u201d sort of predicts Antonio Sant\u2019Elia\u2019s Futuristic or Hans Hollein\u2019s magical architecture. Preceding forms of building sculptures by Andr\u00e9 Bloc by 70 years, they relied on the potentials of concrete. Later on it was clad in metal, but the cupola still remains the \u201etimeless\u201d architecture of the house. Designers adjusted the brick cladding of the new atrium to a then fresh gesture and the geometrical tracery of the backside of the windows in the Main Hall, as well as that of the glass surface of the roof, an immaterial lightness kept in plane. How much it is true to Korb and Giergl\u2019s \u201emodernity\u201d, is reflected by the pre-futuristic architecture they designed in 1896 as the pavilion of Urik\u00e1ny-Zsilv\u00f6lgy Hungarian Coal Mines (see: M\u00c9 2010\/3). This architecture truly proves that the atrium design by Magyari\u2013Paz\u00e1r\u2013Potzner evokes the spirit of Korb-Giergl. As a sophisticated reference, they cleaned up the quoins of the old windows where even the chipped bricks were discreetly preserved at the ledges \u2013 this \u201econcept\u201d is a real hit. We may as well take it as a sign of architectural humour. (Which is necessary, let\u2019s just think of how scarcely accepted the cause of architecture is in Hungary today, which is a fact the designers had to face.)
\nIn the past few decades the Music Academy opened towards Avantgarde and contemporary music, the revolutionary art represented by P\u00e9ter E\u00f6tv\u00f6s, Zolt\u00e1n Kocsis, L\u00e1szl\u00f3 S\u00e1ry, Albert Simon, L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Vidovszky L\u00e1szl\u00f3 and the experimental new aesthetics of \u00daj Zenei St\u00fadi\u00f3, just to name a few. The Academy is thus not a museum, and the palace of music in its revived 2013 format is an authentic contemporary harmony, an old-and-new quality of Hungarian architecture and architectural art.<\/p>\n

Design: MNDP \u00c9p\u00edt\u0151m\u0171v\u00e9szeti Kft.<\/strong>
\nArchitects: \u00c9va Magyari, B\u00e9la Paz\u00e1r \u2013 MNDP Kft., Potzner Ferenc \u2013 K\u00f6zti Zrt.<\/strong>
\nFellow architects: Gy\u00f6rgy Poly\u00e1k, Tibor Bodn\u00e1r, Gerg\u0151 Demj\u00e9n, Gerg\u0151 J\u00e1szai, Gerg\u0151 Sz\u00e9kely, Dani Mecseki \u2013 MNDP Kft., Garai P\u00e9ter \u2013 K\u00f6zti Zrt.<\/strong>
\nSoil mechanics, hydrology: J\u00f3zsef Farkas, Mikl\u00f3s Armuth \u2013 BME<\/strong>
\nExpert on statics: Dr. Mikl\u00f3s Armuth, Dr. Gy\u00f6rgy Visnovitz BME<\/strong>
\nDocumentation: Ferenc Bor \u2013 Hild-Ybl Alap\u00edtv\u00e1ny<\/strong>
\nArt historian: Ferenc D\u00e1vid <\/strong>
\nStructure: P\u00e9ter V\u00e1czi \u2013 K\u00f6zti Zrt.<\/strong>
\nHVAC: Andr\u00e1s Oltvai, Tam\u00e1s Oltvai \u2013 ART-TAX Sz\u00f6vetkezet, Oltvai G\u00e9p\u00e9sz St\u00fadi\u00f3<\/strong>
\nAcoustics: \u00c9va Arat\u00f3, Larry Kirkergaard \u2013 Arat\u00f3 Akusztika Kft. <\/strong>
\nMain contractor: Arcadom-Laki-Swietelsky Konzorcium, ZAK Kft.<\/strong>
\nProject management: Tam\u00e1s Kiss V\u00e1mosi <\/strong><\/p>\n

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