Welcoming spring, or the justification of the elite culture.

Balassagyarmat avaited its guests and the spring with combining three differest kinds of art on the same night, literature,  fine arts and dancing. The motto of the invitation card was: Welcoming spring with arts.

The main event of the evening was Iván Markó's  interpretation of Bolero. He wanted to thank the city, that it choosed him to be its freeman with this gesture, with a free performance, and he promised this show to the citizen's when he visited the town in November.

The organizer of both events was Béla Majdán, and its message was, that we should nurse our cultural traditions and roots, and its goal was to create an event of high standards, which will be worthy of the town's traditions, and which will also show us the opportunity for a brighter future.

Of course there were supporters, such as the Delphi, the local government, contractors and also civilians, and they all helped to create this evening.

As it was anticipated, the aula and the stairways of the former County House were filled with  visitors, almost 400 people wanted to hear the opening ceremony, in a place which  usually could barely take in half of this amount.

This and the enquiry showed again, that our town could use an appropriate theatre in a larger building.

From the tight reality we were guided to the land of muses and poetry by our Madách-award winner performer: Dr. András Szabó, who reminded us to the poetry and to the era of Bálint Balassi and János Rimay. As usually he not only recited poems, but he also held a little "literary history class", and by doing so, he managed to bring the  poets closer to us.

István Csábi was setting Petőfi poems to music with his guitar, and he convinced everyone again, who great of a performer he really is, and we could see what a great voice he has. But we also could see, that -quoting Balassi- fortune and fame can not really be achieved on the borderlands.

There was also an exhibition, showing us the creations of the freeman of our town, Péter Raab Párkányi, sculptor. His exhibition was opened by Gábor Csach deputy major. Párkányi is a unique  talent, he is not a follower of the modern artists, he brings something new to the table, and he manages to remain broad, clean and artistic in the process. We were more familiar with his statues on the public places of Balassagyarmat, or with his work about Mindszenthy, which can be seen on the wall of the catholic church.  Now we were able to learn about his Most statuettes, figurative, perfectly shaped works. Its too bad, that the aula was not a good place for an exhibition, too dark and too little space.

At the assembly hall the touched Iván Markó welcomed the citizens of Balassagyarmat. The artist, who just celebrated his 60th birthday still searches for his childhood roots  with a clear enthusiasm, and he was happy to bring us one of the most erotic piece of musical art,  Bolero, with his unique direction and  choreography.

The choreography was unique, because we saw the same show in both acts, Ravel's Bolero, but in the first act a woman danced the main role, and in the second part a man. And it turned out Iván Markó was right. A musical piece can be interpreted and presented to an audience as two.

Throughout the evening the III.th theme of Beethoven's IX.th Symphony was performed by Castillo Dolores and Gábor Keveházi, who is a Kossuth-award winner, Worthy and Outstanding Artist of the Hungarian Nation-award winner dancer.

It was the second occasion within a short periodof time, when this little town proved there is room for elite culture in it. There is certainly a fair amount of  enquiry, even without advertisement, and to create a better and more suitable environment for it, is up to the government of the city and the county now. But most importantly we need to improve the foundations of our future.

Further pictures from the event:

 Photos by: Nelly Kiss

Translated by: Majdán Béla Jr.

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