Xaver Varnus

Xaver Varnus (born 29 April 1964 in Budapest) is a Hungarian-born Canadian organist, improvisor, writer, and television personality.

Life

Xaver Varnus is to Hungary roughly what Vladimir Horowitz was to Russia: a famous exile, recognized in the streets, crowded by requests for autographs in restaurants, or even in the swimming pools. Bus drivers brake when they see him walking on the streets of Budapest and pick him up between stops. But Varnus is neither a sports hero nor a rock star: he is a Canadian citizen who is also Hungary’s most acclaimed living classical musician and an institution in his homeland. According to public opinion polls and newspapers, he is among the five most popular personalities in Hungary: it is nearly impossible to get tickets to his concerts. His autobiographical book, ’God will forgive me. It's his job’ (1996) is a Hungarian best-seller. Varnus’s fame, based entirely on his recitals and his improvisations, is hard to imagine in the Western world. But it is altogether natural in a small country with a hyperactive cultural life.

Born in Budapest, the first child of a mathematician mother and a jazz pianist father, he knew by the age of six exactly what he would become. His first piano teacher was Emma Németh, one of the last pupils of Claude Debussy. He lit up the musical firmament of the world like a shooting star. At sixteen, he undertook his first concert tour of Europe. In 1981 Varnus left Hungary to study with the formidable Pierre Cochereau, the late organist of Notre Dame de Paris.

Varnus made his North American debut on 5 May 1985 to a three-thousand-strong audience at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He has played virtually every important organ in the world, including those in Bach's St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, Notre Dame de Paris, Saint-Sulpice, Paris and Saint-Eustache, Paris,[1] Moscow Conservatory, as well as the largest existing instrument in the world, the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ in Philadelphia.[2] In October 2005, he performed in concert to a sold-out house in the 4,000-seat Canterbury Cathedral in England.[3] In 2006, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his concert debut, he played a sold-out concert on the legendary Cavaillé-Coll organ in the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris.[4] In 2006, he performed the inaugural concert at the Palace of Arts, one of the largest concert halls in Europe.[5] Perhaps the most daring concert Xaver Varnus ever played was at the Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest, in 2002. Four hours before the concert, even standing places could hardly be found in the church, and 7,200 people were sitting and standing to listen to the legendary improvisor's fiendish virtuosity.[6] One of the greatest European musical sensations of 2009 was the joint concert by the superb French jazz pianist Jacques Loussier and Xaver Varnus, who played to an absolutely packed house at the Palace of Arts.

In the tradition of the legendary American organist, Virgil Fox, Varnus expanded upon a practice he had begun years earlier of speaking to the audience from the stage, discussing the music and bringing a new dimension to his concerts. Varnus is credited with bringing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach to young people with an innovative and exciting style, although he often drew adverse criticism from some of his colleagues in the organ world and from those music critics who found his approach too flamboyant. His televised concert and lecture series started in 1992 at the Magyar Televízió (Hungarian State Television), followed by the extraordinary Young People's Organ Concerts in 2002, which extended over eight seasons. He is perhaps the most influential figure in Hungarian classical music in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Organist, improvisor, author, lecturer and often controversial media personality, Xaver Varnus has had a dramatic impact on the popular audience's acceptance and appreciation of classical music. Over the course of his short career, Xaver Varnus has played to more than six million people worldwide, recorded 51 albums, made sixty concert films, and written five books. His videos have surpassed 2 million views on YouTube. His 2007 Sony BMG released Four Times Platinum collection ("From Ravel to Vangelis") has become the number one best-seller of organ recordings ever published.[7]

“In a world too long dominated by organists with little imagination, little talent, and little technique, Xaver Varnus, 22, who has gobs of all three, should make friends quickly.” These lines are by the distinguished North American critic Arthur Kaptainis writing in The Gazette (Montreal) on 20 August 1986. Twenty years later, leading Hungarian music critic Miklós Fáy wrote: “Xaver can talk in the language of the people and has made thousands interested in his concerts. If anyone can make classical music attractive, he can. He can play the organ, he is cultured, and he is a modern figure from every perspective who can prove with his personality that it is not just the losers who listen to Bach and who have missed out on everything and so prove themselves and each other in a secret circle, that he is the real thing and not a delusion.” [8] A Canadian citizen since 1984 Varnus has been married twice, and has two children in Canada: Daniel (born 1985) is a mechanical engineer and Nicolas (born 1987) is a professional snowboarder. Most of the time, Mr.Varnus resides at Villa Varnus, a beautiful historical country estate of the Varnus family, near Lake Balaton in Hungary,[9] which is his official residence. He also often resides in his family's houses in Budapest and Toronto.

Varnus has received many honors, including the Great Cross of Civil Merit of the Republic of Hungary, the highest honor for important figures in the history of the country.

Discography

References

  1. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv708nKjTvM
  2. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jyrD_AS3Io
  3. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B6Q85iqQQ8
  4. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYBTg3CV3DQ
  5. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL1oSGgrEuk
  6. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4u2GFwr5Xk
  7. ↑ http://mupa.hu/en/program/xaver-varnus-2012-04-16_19-30-bbnh
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/VillaVarnusAtLakeBalaton

External links