“Prodigy” is a dangerous term. Plenty of musicians show extraordinary promise from an early age but when they reach adolescence, with its myriad distractions, it can all go horribly wrong. Hours of practice leave little room for friendships, and schoolwork demands attention. No wonder so many significant talents fall by the wayside.
With all these pressures, 13-year-old Hungarian pianist Mihály Boros seems remarkably well-adjusted. It’s probably because football, particularly the English Premier League, has the power to lure him away from his hours sequestered with Scarlatti, Beethoven, Chopin and Bartók. Misi – as he prefers to be known – can reel off the names of top UK players and was thrilled last year to watch Arsenal play Zagreb in the Champions League.
Football punctuates a heavy schedule wherever he finds himself in the world - and that might be anywhere - he’s performed in cities ranging from New York to Tokyo, Rome to Beijing. And with the globetrotting comes a nascent celebrity status back at home: witness photographs of him alongside Brazilian football star Ronaldinho and racing driver Lewis Hamilton.
“I practice six to seven hours a day,” said Misi, who is currently learning Chopin’s F minor piano concerto. “I have to admit I am a little behind with some of my school work, but I have tutors who help me to keep up.”
He studies at the Franz Liszt School in his home city of Pécs in southern Hungary, both his parents are professors at the city’s university. Janos Boros is an engineer and philosopher and his mother, Jolan Orban, teaches literature. They accompany Misi on his tours and attempt to keep his feet on the ground. “When he starts playing, he forgets everything else,” says his mother.
The pianist and conductor Tamás Vásáry, elder statesman of Hungarian music, is lavish in his praise of the boy. “This is more than playing well on piano, or good music. This is art, true art,” he said in response to Misi’s newly-released first recording that includes works by Scarlatti, Bach, Beethoven and Chopin.
It’s the sort of response he has been garnering since the age of eight, when he won the 2011 Bela Bartók youth piano competition. At 10 he took the prize for all age categories in the 2013 Mozart piano competition in Rome, following that with top prizes in Hungary and Milan, and then, last year, first prize in the Concours Musical de France.
So, what to make of Misi’s playing? His album, entitled simply Misi Boros and recorded while winning the Hungarian TV classical music competition Virtuosos, reveals a sensitivity way beyond his years, particularly in the Chopin Etudes in G flat major and C sharp minor and Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances. Naturally, he lacks the sheer heft of a fully grown pianist but technically his performances are confident and assured.
He’s joined by the Hungarian National Philharmonic under János Kovács for Mozart’s piano concerto No 21 in C major K467 which he addresses with measured maturity. Yes, there are the occasional fluffs but the youthful fire burns through, and his own cadenzas show an acutely developing musical mind.
Music lovers the world over will no doubt be hearing much more of Misi Boros in the future, but cities with world-class football teams might just get priority...
•Misi Boros’s debut album is out now on iTunes, Spotify and Deezer.
