Evren Kutlay–Gábor Fodor–Richard Wittmann (eds.) In the Footsteps of Franz Liszt. The Ottoman Court Musician Géza Hegyei & the Stage of Istanbul’s Club Teutonia

Géza Hegyei (1863 – 1926) received his first piano lessons from Henrik Gobbi, one of Liszt’s students, before fate finally led him to the tutelage of Ferenc (Franz) Liszt himself at the Hungarian National Music Academy in Budapest. Upon the invitation of György Klapka, the hero of the 1848 – 49 Hungarian Revolution, Hegyei gave his first concert in Constantinople at the Club Teutonia in January 1888. Almost two years later he took to the stage in front of Sultan Abdulhamid II for the first time at the Yıldız Theater, after which he became a piano teacher to the Sultan’s family and Istanbul’s elite, a celebrated performer in Western music salons, and a regular at charity concerts throughout Istanbul.

This catalogue is based on the exhibition of the same name that was on display at Istanbul’s Clubhouse Teutonia in June 2023, the very place where Hegyei spent a significant portion of his artistic life in Turkey. 126 years after it first opened, Clubhouse Teutonia once again aquired its original architectural splendor as a result of extensive renovation work undertaken by the Orient-Institut Istanbul; these efforts have transformed the historic building into a humanities research center while at the same time honoring its rich legacy as a cultural venue in the metropolis of Istanbul.