As the opening gesture of a close collaboration taking shape between the National Széchényi Library (NSZL) and the Liszt Academy in Budapest which last year, in 2025, celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding, the content service Copia has been enriched with the greater part of the oeuvres of three Hungarian composers of international stature—amounting to nearly ten thousand pages of freely accessible, high-quality autograph music manuscripts. Two of the composers were themselves commemorated by anniversaries last year: Leó Weiner (1885–1960), born 140 years ago, and his student Ferenc Farkas (1905–2000), born 120 years ago. In addition, the music manuscripts and related photographs of Franz Liszt (1811–1886)—the legendary figure of nineteenth-century international musical life, composer and pianist who played a decisive role in founding the Liszt Academy—are now publicly accessible as part of the national cultural heritage.

Liszt relics are treasured holdings of prominent institutions worldwide, in Hungary, beyond the Liszt Memorial Museum and Research Centre, a significant corpus is preserved in the Music Collection of the national library, comprising a total of 53 Liszt autographs. Among the compositions newly made available, the full score of the monumental Faust Symphony stands out in particular importance: for the first time, every detail of its original version—replete with numerous pasted inserts and corrections—can be examined. In addition to the autograph manuscripts, this year the National Library’s Department of Historical Photographs and Oral History has also published historical recordings of Liszt and materials closely related to his oeuvre, thereby increasing to 1,241 the number of relevant images accessible through the Fotótér content service.

With the authorization of the Weiner Board of Trustees of the Liszt Academy of Music, the works of Leó Weiner—born 140 years ago, twice recipient of the Kossuth Prize, composer and legendary chamber music professor—have likewise become accessible. Although the composer’s estate and a substantial portion of his oeuvre are preserved by his alma mater, twenty-two Weiner autographs held in the Music Collection of the national library are now presented in our content service, including key compositions of his life’s work.

The estate of Ferenc Farkas—born 120 years ago, a student of Leó Weiner and Albert Siklós (1878–1942), and in Rome of Ottorino Respighi—was deposited with the OSZK a decade ago, in 2015, by the conductor András Farkas (b. 1945), the composer’s son. The processing of the more than eight hundred autograph music manuscripts contained in the estate was completed this year; on the occasion of the anniversary, and with the permission of the rights holder, a selection of 120 items is now being published.

Link to the Copia Website: https://copia.oszk.hu/kottak/