Gyorgy Cziffra

Hungarian virtuoso pianist. b. November 5, 1921 – January 17, 1994. He was born in Budapest. By the age of five, he was improvising popular show tunes in bars and circuses. He studied at the Franz Liszt Academy, and eventually staged sensational concerts around the world. He always performed with a large leather wristband, as a memento of his years in labour. Cziffra also made a famous transcription of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight Of The Bumblebee, written in interlocking octaves.