Day of Hungarian Culture

With Thy plenty and good cheer

A talk by Krisztián Nyáry and Ádám Bősze

A production of Óbudai Társaskör

With Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra

Why did it take 166 years for Ferenc Kölcsey's poem 'Hymn' to become a legitimate national anthem? Why did the politicians of various regimes dislike Erkel and Kölcsey's work, and what alternative marches did they try? What was the national anthem before the anthem? What does the swineheard's dance have to do with Kölcsey's lyrics? Why did the poet consider his own work a mediocre poem? How many minutes did Ferenc Erkel take to write the music for 'Hymn' while under house arrest, and does it have any authentic music? How do Erkel's 'Szózat' and Béni Egressy's 'Hymn' sound? Why was Franz Liszt offended after writing an anthem for the Hungarians? Why was the anthem not allowed to be sung in church, since when is it proper to stand to listen to it, and why was an incorrect text passed into law? Why did Zoltán Kodály and Gyula Illyés not write a new anthem at the request of Mátyás Rákosi? And speaking of anthems written by Hungarians, what do Sándor Kisfaludy and the wine of Badacsony have to do with the anthem of the European Union? Why do Hasidic Jews around the world sing a Hungarian flower hymn of love as a religious hymn? What makes the Szekler anthem Szekler and why was 'Szép vagy, gyönyörű vagy Magyarország' not played in 1944? Why does the Slovak anthem resemble a Hungarian folk song and the Israeli anthem a Hungarian Catholic church song? What do the members of the French élite tank battalion sing in Hungarian and how did the Hungarian operetta get into the Icelandic football stadium? What makes the Uruguayan and Paraguayan anthems Hungarian? And how is an anthem born if it is Hungarian? Krisztián Nyáry and Ádám Bősze reveal all this in a lively and rich adventure through the history of literature and music - on the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Hungarian national anthem.