Léo Delibes, Franz Liszt and the Budapest Social Life

The increasing number of world-famous foreign musicians visiting Budapest in the years following the unification of the capital in 1873 also included the outstanding members of the period's young French generation of composers. The visits Léo Delibes made to Budapest – in early 1878 and again in March 1881, when he conducted his own works at the National Theater – were of great importance for the revival of French musical relations. (The third time the composer of Coppélia came to Hungary was for an official visit during the 1885 National Exhibition, as a member of a large French delegation.) The newly formed associations, such as the Society of Writers and Artists, the French Circle of Budapest, and the salons played a major role in welcoming Delibes and in the development of French–Hungarian intellectual and cultural rapprochement. Franz Liszt, the Wohl sisters, Dénes Pázmándy and Mór Wahrmann, among others, gave receptions in honor of the French musician. The present study examines those social events surrounding the illustrious guest which were also characteristic of Liszt's social life in Budapest, focusing on the venues, participants, and significance of these events.