Miskolc – The Legend of the Palace of Music

The Palace of Music

The following is one of the legends we heard that both of us liked a lot:

"Around where the Palace of Music now stands there used to be one-story buildings.  If people opened their windows they could see the Szinva river, as it flowed uncovered at that time.  There was a small park next to it, perhaps where the present building is located.  There lived a young man at that time who everybody called the “invisible violin-player.”  He lived like the birds of the night: he hid from people during the daytime.

He was an unfortunate child.  His parents and brothers died in an inferno, something which happened quite often then.  Miraculously, he survived, but his face and body were seriously burned.  They say that only his hands survived completely.  The old doctor who cured him grew very fond of him, so he decided to raise him and teach him how to play the violin.  When the old doctor died the only thing the boy had left was his violin.  He could play it in such a way that it broke the heart of anyone who heard it.  In the evenings when the sun set over the small houses, people would sit out and listen to him playing.  At such times, the men kept quiet, the women stopped gossiping, and the mysterious celebration took over them as their souls disappeared into the depths.

They say there lived a girl nearby who fell in love with the invisible violinist.  Or maybe it was the music that she fell in love with.  It felt like someone touching her heart with her bare hands.  It felt like someone had opened a door leading to her soul and found new places and kept opening new doors inside her.

Love has power as great as music.  One night this great power led the girl to the invisible violinist.  She crept up behind him quietly, covered his eyes and turned his face around.  The violin stopped and fell out of his hand.  It was a full moon that night and it shone down on them.  Only the moon saw the girl and the violinist looking into each other’s eyes.  The girl gazed at the face that was burned and deformed and the violinist was surprised to see the pair of dark blue eyes staring back at him.

They say that the girl’s family never forgave her for loving the burned-faced violinist.  They say that she was forced to marry someone else.  She didn’t have a chance.  In order to prevent her from escaping to see the violinist her father locked her in her room.  But love cannot be kept in a prison.  When the sun set the violinist started playing and told the girl that love is eternal.  The strings shivered from pain, hope and happiness.

They say it was already winter when they heard the sound of the violin for the last time.  The sound of the violin went through everything: the thick walls, the closed windows, and sad souls…

Some late-night passers-by saw two figures standing on the banks of the river.  The silhouette of a girl standing still and a man playing the violin.  They saw the man put his violin on a bench and hug the girl.  But the strangest thing was that the music never stopped.  It kept playing as if a hand from the sky had taken control of the violin.  The music flew in the air loud and clear.  The strings of the violin sang every happiness and pain of human fate.  No one had heard such a beautiful sound before.

Some time around midnight it started snowing and snow covered the trees, all the bushes, and the houses.  By dawn the music had stopped, and the girl and the violinist disappeared and nobody saw them ever again.  There were no footsteps left in the clear white snow.  The violin was found on the ground after the snow had melted.  They say that as soon as someone touched it the strings snapped quietly, just like a person’s heart breaks.

Many, many years later in 1927 the town built a Neo-Baroque style palace there.  A building that is worthy of the legend connected to it.  Since then everything is pure music there.  That is what the lute on the front of the building, the square in front named for Béla Bartók and the statue of the boy playing the flute all represent.  The rails of the balcony, the door, the windows and stairs are all musical notes carved into iron.  The wall paintings in the concert hall also stand for this.  Everything is completely about music here even when the hall is quiet, when there are no concerts, when the sound of the pupils’ instruments are not heard on the street.

How odd, how great, that so many famous violin players are somehow connected to Miskolc.  Ede Reményi, the bronze relief of Ernó Lányi near the staircase, the statue of Jenö Hubay in the front room of the concert hall, they all remind the visitor of them.

The three of them were world famous, the whole world could hear them play.  The memory of the fourth one, the invisible violinist, is not preserved by any statue or memorial.  Only this legend is left.  But legends live forever, just like love and music."