Miklós Perényi

Miklós Perényi, who was born in 1948 in Budapest, began playing cello at the age of five and gave his first public concert at nine. Between 1960 and 1964, he studied with Ede Banda in Budapest and with Enrico Mainardi in Rome. In 1963 he was a prizewinner at the International Casals Competition in Budapest. Pablo Casals subsequently invited him to his master classes in Puerto Rico, in 1965 and 1966, and in later years to the Marlboro Festival. Since then, Perényi has performed at the music festivals in Edinburgh, Salzburg, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Hohenems, and Warsaw. In the 2017-18 season, he was a guest artist at the Beethovenfest in Bonn, the Concertgebouw Brügge, the Grand Théâtre in Dijon, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Dresden Music Festival. He regularly collaborates with the leading orchestras; a highlight was his tour with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle in 2013, during which he performed Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto. Perényi’s repertoire includes works from the 17th century to the present. As a chamber musician, he enjoys a close partnership with Sir András Schiff, which has been captured on their recording of Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano. Since 1974, Perényi has taught at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he is currently a professor. In 2014 he was additionally named to the International Chair in Cello at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Besides his concert appearances and educational work, he is also an active composer and has written pieces for solo cello and for smaller and larger instrumental ensembles. For his musical work, Perényi received the Kossuth Prize in 1980,
the Bartók-Pásztory Prize in 1987, and Hungary’s Artist of the Nation Award in 2014.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 22 August 1963 in a program of works by Valentino, Bach, Kodály, and Schubert, with Piero Guarino accompanying at the piano.

July 2018