Hungarian-born Polish composer, teacher, and improvisor, Szábolcs Esztényi has died. Born in Budapest in 1939, he has called Warsaw home since 1961, until his death last June 29 aged 85.
Esztényi was a teenager during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. He helped deliver weapons to revolutionaries, which made high school difficult for him, and prevented him from taking regular studies in college. At the Academy of Music Franz Liszt, he took "conservatory courses" from 1957 to 1960, and then moved to Poland as a tourist. He was admitted into what is now the Chopin University of Music, exempting him from service in the Hungarian army. At university, he studied piano with Margerita Trombini-Kazuro and composition with Witold Rudziński.
Esztényi soon became an important figure in the Polish classical music scene: he premiered many new works, including Pianophonie by his friend Kazimierz Serocki, Variations on a Theme of Paganini by Rafał Augustyn and Etudes by Paweł Szymański, made numerous recordings, and championed Hungarian music. He recalled in an interview that when he first came to Poland: "Some people had quite superficial knowledge on [Hungarian music], mainly mediated by the czardas, Brahms and Liszt. So I introduced them to the legacy of Bartók. I played mainly selected songs from Mikrokosmos, and then we analyzed them and talked about them."
In 1971, Esztényi returned to the Chopin University as a professor of improvisation. He became particularly renowned in the subject, and since 1996 has given lectures and workshops on piano improvisation at the summer Master Classes of Contemporary Piano and Vocal Music in Bystrzyca Kłodzka and Świdnica.
Esztényi was also a champion of avant-garde music. He experimented with the full capabilities of the piano and collaborated with the Polish Radio Experimental Studio. He was also one of the first figures to perform John Cage in Poland. Bohdan Pociej believed he helped create a new style of piano playing "with a clearly defined, separate poetics and aesthetics."
Esztényi never took dual citizenship, and always remembered Hungary with great fondness.
