György Kurtág (b. 1926)

Started by bhodges, November 12, 2007, 10:18:39 AM

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Joaquimhock

I was only able to listen to the first hour and the last 15 minutes properly. Do you know if there is a podcast somewhere? I find nothing on RAI 3...

"Dans la vie il faut regarder par la fenêtre"

Joaquimhock

"Dans la vie il faut regarder par la fenêtre"

Mandryka

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

bhodges

Happy Birthday to György Kurtág, who turns 93 today.

One of the greats, he wrote his first opera last year, 'Fin de partie,' based on Beckett's 'Endgame.'

--Bruce

schnittkease

Quote from: Brewski on February 19, 2019, 05:45:48 AM
Happy Birthday to György Kurtág, who turns 93 today.

One of the greats, he wrote his first opera last year, 'Fin de partie,' based on Beckett's 'Endgame.'

--Bruce

Long live!

vers la flamme

#105
I'm new to his music, but it's recently occurred to me that Kurtág is one hell of a composer! I have this disc:



... & it's great... especially the song cycle Messages of the Late Miss R.V. Troussova, op.17, and my personal favorite from the disc, ...quasi una fantasia..., op.27/1, surely an homage to Beethoven's op.27 "Quasi fantasia" sonatas.

Any fans of Kurtág's music lately? I think he reminds me something of Anton Webern, a favorite of mine, but... very different. Another touchstone would be Lutoslawski. But I find Kurtág's music to be truly unique. Definitely one of the greatest living composers, no...?

Another question I have: can anyone tell me whether or not Kurtág's music employs so-called serial techniques? I ask because some of his music shares similarities with the prototypically serialist late music of Webern, but for the most part, I am more so reminded of Webern's pre-serial, expressionistic works.

CRCulver

Quote from: vers la flamme on September 15, 2019, 10:24:55 AM
Another question I have: can anyone tell me whether or not Kurtág's music employs so-called serial techniques? I ask because some of his music shares similarities with the prototypically serialist late music of Webern, but for the most part, I am more so reminded of Webern's pre-serial, expressionistic works.

Kurtág's first several opus numbers are fairly conventionally serialist. There is an ample literature analyzing these works.

not edward

Exciting news: Kurtag's operatic version of Beckett's Fin de Partie is now free to watch from RAI for the next month:

Link: https://www.raiplay.it/programmi/findepartie
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

vers la flamme

Quote from: edward on March 28, 2020, 07:30:58 AM
Exciting news: Kurtag's operatic version of Beckett's Fin de Partie is now free to watch from RAI for the next month:

Link: https://www.raiplay.it/programmi/findepartie

Thanks!

I've been meaning to get more into Kurtág. I keep coming close to pulling the trigger on the Reinbert de Leeuw Kurtág set on ECM, but backing out at the last minute and buying something else instead. Quick, someone talk me into buying it. :D

not edward

Quote from: vers la flamme on March 28, 2020, 07:41:22 AM
Thanks!

I've been meaning to get more into Kurtág. I keep coming close to pulling the trigger on the Reinbert de Leeuw Kurtág set on ECM, but backing out at the last minute and buying something else instead. Quick, someone talk me into buying it. :D
Buy it. It's a really good summary of his career. PS: the Hungaroton recordings of the song cycles are amazing, too.
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

oboe1

Soon I will be doing an online lecture/recital on Kurtag's solo music for oboe/English horn, music which has only been recently published although it was privately circulated for several decades.  One of the most memorable pieces is "Rozsnyai Ilona in memorium" for English horn and contrabass clarinet.  In all of my research I have been able to find material on the other works to be presented, but can find nothing as to who Rozsnyai Ilona was.  Any information out there?  The piece was written in 1997 so it cannot be referring to someone I see on more recent YouTube videos.  Any help is appreciated.

not edward

Some free Kurtag concerts online courtesy of the Budapest Music Centre: they're at 7:30 local time / 6:30 GMT / 1:30 EST.

https://bmc.hu/en/news/kurtag-95

Unfortunately it seems that the stream from yesterday's concert is no longer available.

BMC has also released a new recording of the concerto for soprano and piano Sayings of Péter Bornemisza with Tony Arnold and Gábor Csalog.
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

bhodges

Quote from: edward on February 19, 2021, 04:24:20 AM
Some free Kurtag concerts online courtesy of the Budapest Music Centre: they're at 7:30 local time / 6:30 GMT / 1:30 EST.

https://bmc.hu/en/news/kurtag-95

Unfortunately it seems that the stream from yesterday's concert is no longer available.

BMC has also released a new recording of the concerto for soprano and piano Sayings of Péter Bornemisza with Tony Arnold and Gábor Csalog.

Thanks so much, edward!

--Bruce

CRCulver

Quote from: not edward on February 19, 2021, 04:24:20 AM
BMC has also released a new recording of the concerto for soprano and piano Sayings of Péter Bornemisza with Tony Arnold and Gábor Csalog.

It would be interesting to know what Kurtág thinks of this. The story of the original Hungaroton recording of The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza is infamous: Kurtág kept rejecting take after take, because the performers couldn't get exactly what he wanted in spite of endless rehearsal and Kurtág's elaborate verbal instructions on how to "get behind the score". After forty-odd takes, they just gave up and released one of the takes they already had.

Mandryka

Quote from: CRCulver on February 20, 2021, 01:25:11 AM
It would be interesting to know what Kurtág thinks of this. The story of the original Hungaroton recording of The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza is infamous: Kurtág kept rejecting take after take, because the performers couldn't get exactly what he wanted in spite of endless rehearsal and Kurtág's elaborate verbal instructions on how to "get behind the score". After forty-odd takes, they just gave up and released one of the takes they already had.

QuotePreparations for the Budapest commemoration concert for the Reformation 500, given on 19 December 2017 in the Music Academy, began two years earlier. Finding the singer for Bornemisza proved to be the most difficult task. A good few excellent singers rejected the piece, notorious for its murderously difficult vocal part, and others were vetoed by the composer. Tony Arnold, who had already proved her affinity
for the composer with her performances of Kurtág's Op. 17, Messages of the Late R. V. Troussova, took on the challenge. Grappling with the Hungarian-language proved to be the easiest thing for her. The real challenge was mastering the astonishingly difficult, dodecaphonic voice part, with its extremes of register, and dramatic outbursts, all at the white heat of expression that Kurtág demanded. Most of the rehearsals took place in Budapest, with Kurtág. The composer's wife Márta monitored the heroic undertakings throughout, constantly reproaching Kurtág for the devilishly difficult things he had set down on paper. At one dramatic moment Tony broke down in tears. "Here I am, fifty years old, I thought I knew all there was to know about singing, and it turns out I know nothing." Then the Kurtág couple embraced her. This may well have been the turning point in the rehearsal process. Gábor Csalog had already played the equally "unlearnable" piano part several times. During rehearsals he stood his ground as a pianist, assistant, mediator, and if necessary, psychologist. Whoever has studied with Kurtág has some idea of his demands for uncompromising music-making – for the musicians to give their entire being. To paraphrase the text of a Hungarian folksong: "if you want to be [Kurtág's] piper, you have to go through hell." Perhaps it is no exaggeration if, in the case of The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza, this "hell" is the most frightening and hopeless of places. Eventually though, the story of this passionate work of several years was crowned with resurrection: the work was born into new life, in a "valid" performance.

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/94/000139949.pdf
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

CRCulver

The Guardian is running today an article on Kurtág. From this mass newspaper you can't expect anything deep, but the article does show that Kurtág is still actively working and coaching performers – I had worried that with his declining output, he might have succumbed to dementia.

Another surprising discovery from this article is that György Ligeti's widow Vera is still alive.