Georges Cziffra

Who was Georges Cziffra?

Georges Cziffra was a Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist. He became a French citizen in 1968.

Cziffra is most known for his recordings of Franz Liszt's virtuoso works. He also recorded many of Frédéric Chopin's compositions and those of Robert Schumann. Cziffra is also well known for his technically demanding transcriptions of several orchestral works for the piano – among them, one of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee, written in interlocking octaves. He is considered to be one of the greatest technicians on piano of the 20th century.