Hungarian Rhapsody
Last night we went to an excellent concert featuring a pianist from Hungary in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolt against the evil Russian communist empire. (By the way, the death of that ex-KGB officer in Britain recently has the fingerprints of the KGB all over it. Very intriguing if Putin was involved too of course).
The concert was put on by the Palo Alto Philharmonic and featured Liszt, Bartok and Brahms. Brahms was a German/Austrian who was heavily influenced by Hungarian music and I'm looking forward to visiting Austria again and checking out a number of cities (including the Sound of Music city Salzburg). Perhaps this Summer! (Austria, as you know, is directly west of Hungary and only about a 4 hour drive from Budapest.)
Another cool thing about hearing Brahms last night is that the orchestra played the one and only song I ever really learned to play (after about 2 years of piano lessons as a youngster)--the Hungarian Rhapsody (yes, how appropriate given who I've ended up marrying). I performed that song as a 5th grader I believe at a mini recital and can actually still play it today (though my sisters in particular are sick of hearing it.)