In 1989, I was studying piano at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest Hungary with Balázs Szokolay and Péter Nagy, and was preparing some auditions for Grad School. I was working on Bartok’s Piano Sonata (1926), and I was in the Bartokterem (Bartok’s room) which has a bust of Béla B staring right at you as you play. I had a transportive experience as I was playing his sonata in his room while looking at him! I will never forget that moment. That recording in that room got me into the school I wanted to go to, and I felt his eyes had a slight look of approval. Maybe.

Istvan Peter B’RAcz – Fulbright to Hungary 1989