(May 28, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI greeted the Hungarian President Pál Schmitt, and
his retinue, as also the performing orchestra, at the end of a concert, Friday, in
Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall, in honour of the Hungarian composer and virtuoso
pianist Ferenc Liszt, on the bi-centenary of his birth, as also to mark the European
Union Presidency of Hungary. After dwelling on the musical qualities of the pieces
rendered, the Pope had a special word about the rendering of Psalm XIII, in which
one hears the anguished cry of the psalmist repeated four times “How much longer will
you forget me Lord?” It is the anguished cry of man and humanity in the face of the
evil in the world. But the psalmist does not despair, and Liszt, being a man of faith
shares in that hope when the psalmist breaks out into the cry “Let my heart rejoice
in your saving help.”