Kurtág festival at the Liszt Academy

In the framework of this major series celebrating the composer, on 19 February the birthday concert arranged in the Liszt Academy attracted the following artists: András Keller conducting the Concerto Budapest, Saint Ephraim Male Choir, pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich, cellist Louise Hopkins and György Kurtág Jnr. (electronic and keyboard instruments), son of the composer. Immediately before the concert a video message from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was screened, in which principal conductor Simon Rattle, and on behalf of the musicians Gábor Tarkövi, solo trumpet player of the ensemble, greeted György Kurtág on his birthday. The programme featured Messages for an Orchestra (op. 34), Double Concerto (op. 27/2), ...quasi una fantasia... (op. 27/1) and New Messages for an Orchestra  (op. 34/a), along with Zwiegespräch , originally arranged by György Kurtág and György Kurtág Junior for string quartet and synthesizer, whereas on this occasion it was performed in the Olivier Cuendet orchestral variation. The evening wound up with Kurtág’s latest orchestral piece, written at the request of the Lucerne Festival for the 90th birthday of Boulez. Petite musique solennelle en hommage a Pierre Boulez, which premiered in 2015, was heard for the first time in Hungary at the Liszt Academy.

Click on the picture to open the gallery. (Photo: Liszt Academy/László Mudra)

‘Few composers can say of themselves that the institution in which they were a student and then later a teacher greets them on their 90th birthday. Yes, you heard correctly, not in a figurative sense but specifically. The walls of the Liszt Academy rang with happy birthdays,’ the ORIGO columnist wrote in a report on this special occasion, whereas index.hu commented: ‘Kurtág’s remarkable ability lies in being able to grasp and translate the beauty of music in its most purified form. He provides such a transformational experience that a fire alarm cannot obstruct the flow, nor even should somebody interrupt the performance with all the elegance of a brontosaurus.’ After the performance, President of the Liszt Academy Dr. Andrea Vigh awarded the former lecturer of the institution (and, by the way, of the president herself) with an honorary professorial degree, and then requested that he hold a master class for students of the academy. In his response, the composer said that he was just one part in “a very long chain” that started with Bartók and continued with Leó Weiner, András Mihály, Albert Simon, Lászlo Dobszay and Pál Kadosa, and as such he would prefer it if people “saw the entire chain and not just a single link”.

 Click on the picture to open the gallery. (Photo: MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák)

As part of the Kurtág 90 festival, a day earlier an invitation-only media forum and chamber concert was organized in the presence of colleagues and students of György Kurtág, members of the domestic and international press as well as elite representatives of Hungarian cultural life. During the chamber recital the prologue of Fin du Partie (Endgame) to lines by Beckett from Kurtág’s first opera (which is still being worked on) were performed by Hillary Summers (vocals) and Arnaud Arbet (piano), before the composer, whose astonishing energy belies his age, held an improvised master class to the delight of those in attendance. Gergely Fazekas, correspondent for index.hu, had this to say about the improvised stage appearance of György Kurtág: ‘It was not only fascinating what he had to say: when, where and why should Summers speed up, where, when and why she should restrain the tempo, where she should sing with pianissimo softness, where she should project power, where she should imitate the barking of a dog, but primarily how he said it: that astonishing concentration in which he was totally undisturbed by an army of cameramen whose snapping of pictures sounded like gunfire, nor the large audience packing the hall. Kurtág simply got on with the job.’

 Click on the picture to open the gallery. (Photo: BMC/Judit Marjai)

It also became apparent from the ORIGO report exactly why Kurtág selected Beckett for the libretto of his first ever opera. ‘He discovered Beckett’s works through Irish compatriot James Joyce. Beckett’s absurd lines have served as his daily fare since then. That is why he decided that he was not going to change anything in the libretto to suit the music. This is a serious challenge, but worth it.’ However, Kurtág does not want to overthrow classical opera traditions: he reckons that “Fin du Partie will be totally faithful to the spirit of Monteverdi and Mussorgsky,” the site quotes Kurtág as saying. A video report by euronews.com reveals the method by which György Kurtág composes, the thoughts of Hillary Summers concerning the rehearsals for the premiere involving the composer himself, and what music writer Sir Nicholas Kenyon, managing director of the London Barbican Centre and guest at the Liszt Academy concert, considers is the significance of Kurtág and the Kurtág 90 festival.

 Click on the picture to open the gallery. (Photo: BMC/Judit Marjai)

The Kurtág 90 festival timed for the 90th birthday of the composer was the result of a partnership of Müpa Budapest, the Liszt Academy and Editio Musica Budapest, with the support of the Ministry of Human Capacities and National Cultural Fund, and the organization of the Budapest Music Center. The series of events and the concert at the Liszt Academy attracted considerable domestic and foreign media coverage, of which the above is just a fraction of the material published.

György Kurtág, Kossuth and Ferenc Erkel Prize winning composer, pianist, Meritorious Artist, a leading figure of contemporary music known the world over, was born on 19 February 1926 in Lugoj (Hungarian: Lugos) in what is today Romania. He moved to Budapest in 1946, where his teachers were Pál Kadosa, Leó Weiner, Sándor Veress and Ferenc Farkas. In 1967 he became assistant to Pál Kadosa at the Liszt Academy, then between 1968-1986 he was professor of chamber music. Between 1993-1995 he worked in Berlin, after which he spent one year in Vienna before moving to Paris. He is one of the world’s most significant contemporary music composers; his works are characterized by extraordinary concentration, maximum density, as well as efficiency, of means and form. One of his best-known creations is the series entitled Games for Piano comprising four volumes. His lengthy work which carries a serious message is a cantata written for piano and vocals under the title The Sayings of Péter Bornemissza. He is the holder of many prestigious state and art awards both in Hungary and abroad.

MTI/zeneakademia.hu