György Kurtág
Encyclopedia
György Kurtág (ˌɟørɟ ˈkurtaːɡ; born 19 February 1926 in Lugoj) is a Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 composer of contemporary music.

Biography

György Kurtág was born in Lugoj in the Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...

 region, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

.
In 1946, he began his studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music
Franz Liszt Academy of Music
The Franz Liszt Academy of Music is a concert hall and music conservatory in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875...

 in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

, where he met his wife, Márta, and also György Ligeti
György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...

, who became a close friend. His piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 teacher at the academy was Pál Kadosa
Pál Kadosa
Pál Kadosa was a piano teacher and Hungarian composer of the post-Bartók generation. His early style was influenced by Hungarian folklore while his later works were more toward Hindemith and expressively forceful idioms. He was born in Léva. He studied at the national Hungarian Royal Academy...

; he studied composition with Sándor Veress
Sándor Veress
Sándor Veress was a Swiss composer of Hungarian origin. The first half of his life was spent in Hungary; the second, from 1949 until his death, in Switzerland, of which he became a citizen in the last months of his life.Veress taught at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest...

 and Ferenc Farkas
Ferenc Farkas
Ferenc Farkas was a Hungarian composer.Farkas began his studies in composition at the Budapest Academy of Music , where his teachers were Leo Weiner and Albert Siklós. He later studied with Ottorino Respighi in Rome...

, and chamber music with Leó Weiner
Leo Weiner
Leo Weiner , was one of the leading Hungarian music educators of the first half of the twentieth century and a composer.- Education :Weiner was born in Budapest. He had his first music and piano lessons from his brother, and later studied at the Academy of Music in Budapest, studying with János ...

. He graduated in piano and chamber music in 1951 and received his degree in composition in 1955.

Following the Hungarian uprising in 1956, Kurtág’s time in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 between 1957 and 1958 was of critical importance for him. Here, he studied with Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...

 and Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...

. During this time however, Kurtag was suffering from a severe depression: 'I realized to the point of despair that nothing I had believed to constitute the world was true...'. Kurtág received psychological therapy from Marianne Stein – an encounter that revivified the composer and strongly stimulated his artistic development. During this time he also discovered the works of Anton Webern
Anton Webern
Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...

 and the plays of Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...

. The String Quartet he composed in 1959 after his return to Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

 marks this crucial turning point; he refers to this piece as his Opus 1. He dedicated it to his therapist, Stein.

Between 1960 and 1968, he worked as répétiteur at the National Philharmonia in Budapest. In 1967, he was appointed professor of piano and later also of chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

 at the Franz Liszt Academy, where he taught until 1993.

Kurtág’s international reputation began to take hold with Messages of the Late Miss R.V. Troussova for soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 and chamber ensemble, which had its premiere in Paris in 1981. Since the early 1990s, he has worked abroad with increasing frequency: he was composer in residence at the Berlin Philharmonic (1993–95) and the Vienna Konzerthaus Society (1995). He then lived in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 (1996–98), again in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 (1998–99) and upon invitation by Ensemble InterContemporain
Ensemble InterContemporain
The Ensemble InterContemporain is a French chamber orchestra, based in Paris at the Cité de la musique and IRCAM, which specialises in contemporary classical music....

, Cité de la Musique
Cité de la Musique
The Cité de la Musique is a group of institutions dedicated to music and situated in the La Villette quarter, 19th arrondissement, Paris, France. It was designed by the architect Christian de Portzamparc and opened in 1995...

 and Festival d’Automne, in Paris (1999–2001). György Kurtág and his wife have lived near Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

 since 2002.

Work

The compositions before Opus 33, the orchestral work Stele dedicated to Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,...

 and the Berlin Philharmonic, consist mainly of vocal solo and choral music, and of instrumental music, ranging from solo pieces to works for ensembles of increasing size. In several of Kurtág’s pieces, space plays an important role: … quasi una fantasia…, premiered in 1988 at the Berlin Festival, is the first composition in which he explores the idea of music that spatially embraces the audience. Since Op. 33 a number of large scale compositions have been premiered, such as e.g. Messages Op. 34 and New Messages Op. 34a for orchestra, the Beckett settings pas a pas – nulle part Op. 35, the double concerto …concertante… Op. 42 and 6 Moments musicaux Op. 44 for string quartet.

Kurtág is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...

 in 1985, the Kossuth Award of the Hungarian government for his life’s achievement in 1996, the Austrian “Ehrenzeichen” and the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize
The international Ernst von Siemens Music Prize is an annual music prize given by the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste on behalf of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung , established in 1972. The foundation was established by Ernst von Siemens...

 in 1998. In addition, Kurtág is a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, and of the Akademie der Künste
Akademie der Künste
The Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...

, Berlin (both since 1987), and he was named an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001. In 2006 he received the Grawemeyer Award
Grawemeyer Award
The Grawemeyer Awards are five awards given annually by the University of Louisville in the state of Kentucky, United States. The prizes are presented to individuals in the fields of education, ideas improving world order, music composition, religion, and psychology...

 for his composition …concertante… op. 42 for violin, viola and orchestra.

Invited by Walter Fink
Walter Fink
Walter Fink is a German retired executive and a patron of Contemporary music. He is mostly known for being a founding member, Executive Committee member and sponsor of the Rheingau Musik Festival.- Biography :...

, he was the 14th composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival
Rheingau Musik Festival
The Rheingau Musik Festival is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres...

 in 2004. The Ensemble Modern
Ensemble Modern
Ensemble Modern is a chamber ensemble dedicated to the music of modern composers. Formed in 1980, the group is based in Frankfurt, Germany and made up variously of about twenty members from numerous countries....

 and soloists performed his works op. 19, op. 31b and op. 17. On the occasion of his 80th birthday in February 2006, the Budapest Music Centre honoured György Kurtág with the celebration of a festival in his hometown. The same year’s editions of Musikfest Berlin, Vienna modern, Holland Festival
Holland Festival
The Holland Festival is The Netherlands' oldest and largest performing arts festival, and takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theater, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and architecture were added to the festival roster...

 and Festival d’Automne in Paris dedicated special programmes to György Kurtág. Kurtág often holds master-classes in chamber music, and appears in concerts together with his wife Márta. The couple plays an always-renewing selection of pieces for two and four hands from Játékok
Játékok
Játékok is a collection of pedagogical performance pieces for piano , composed by György Kurtág since 1973, 8 Volumes as of 2010.-Concept:...

(Games) and transcriptions. The later volumes of Játékok bears the sub-title Diary Entries and Personal Messages. This, to some extent, reveals the lineage of the unique microcosms, which irresistibly involves the listener at recitals by Márta and György Kurtág.

Most of Kurtág's music is published by Editio Musica Budapest, some at Universal Edition
Universal Edition
Universal Edition is a classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, and originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market...

, Vienna, some at Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and wind musical instruments....

, London.

Compositions

opus-no Title Instrumentation Year
op. 1 String Quartet No. 1 1959
op. 2 Wind Quintet 1959
op. 3 Eight Pieces piano 1960
op. 4 Eight Duos for piano violin and cimbalom  1961
op. 5 Jelék solo viola 1961
op. 5b Jelék solo cello 1961–1984
op. 6 Five Merrycate guitar 1962
op. 6c Splinters cimbalom 1973
op. 6d Splinters piano 1978
op. 7c The Sayings of P. Bornemisza Concerto for soprano and piano 1963–1968
op. 8 In Memory of a Winter Evening Four Fragments for soprano, violin and cimbalom 1969
op. 9 Four Capriccios soprano and chamber ensemble 1969–1970
op. 10 24 Antiphonae orchestra 1970–1971
op. 11 Four Songs to Poems by János Pilinszky bass voice and ensemble 1973–1975
op. 12 S. K. Remembrance Noise, Seven Songs to Poems by Deszö Tandori soprano and violin 1974–1975
op. 13 Hommage a András Mihály 12 microludes for string quartet 1977–1978
op. 14 Herdecker Eurhythmie flute, violin, recitation and tenor-lira 1979
op. 14d Bagatelles flute, double-bass and piano 1981
op. 14e Three Pieces violin and piano 1979
op. 15b The Little Predicament piccolo, trombone and guitar 1978
op. 15c Grabstein für Stephan guitar and instrumental groups 1989
op. 15d Hommage a R. Sch. clarinet, viola and piano 1990
op. 16 Omaggio a Luigi Nono to poems by Anna Akhmatova
Anna Akhmatova
Anna Andreyevna Gorenko , better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova , was a Russian and Soviet modernist poet, one of the most acclaimed writers in the Russian canon.Harrington p11...

 and R. Dalos
mixed voices 1979
op. 17 Messages of the Late R. V. Troussova, words by Rimma Dalos  soprano and chamber ensemble 1976–1980
op. 18 Songs of Despair and Sorrow mixed choir with instruments 1980–1994
op. 19 Scenes from a Novel soprano, violin, double-bass and cimbalom 1981–1982
op. 20 Attila József Fragments soprano 1981–1982
op. 21 Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (begun 1980)
op. 22 Seven Songs soprano and cimbalom 1981
op. 23 Eight Choruses to Poems by Deszö Tandori mixed voices 1981–1982, 1984
op. 24 Kafka-Fragmente soprano and violin 1985–1986
op. 25 Three Ancient Inscriptions voice and piano 1986
op. 26 Requiem for a Friend to Poems by Rimma Dalos soprano and piano 1986–1987
op. 27/1 ...quasi una fantasia... piano and chamber ensemble 1987–1988
op. 27/2 Double concerto piano, violoncello and two chamber ensembles 1989–1990
op. 28 Officium Breve in Memoriam Andreae Szervánszky string quartet 1988–1989
op. 29 Hölderlin: An... (A Fragment) tenor and piano 1988–1989
op. 30b Samuel Beckett: What is the Word recitation, mixed voices and chamber ensemble 1990–1991
op. 31b Ligatura - Message-Hommage à Frances-Marie Uitti (The Answered Unanswered Question) violoncello with two bows, 2 violins and celesta; or 2 violoncelli, 2 violins and celesta; or 2 organs and celesta 1989
op. 32 Lebenslauf 2 bassett horns and 2 pianos (tuned 1/4-tone apart) 1992
op. 33 Stele orchestra 1994
op. 34 Messages orchestra 1991–1996
op. 34a New Messages orchestra 1998-in progress
op. 35a Hölderlin-Gesänge for baritone 1993–1997
op. 36 ...pas à pas - nulle part... (poems by Beckett) baritone, string trio and percussion 1993–1998
op. 37 Fragments from the Scrapbooks of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg soprano and instruments 1996
op. 38 Three Pieces clarinet and cimbalom 1996
op. 38a Three Other Pieces clarinet and cimbalom 1996
op. 40 Esterházy Péter: Fancsikó és Pinta (Fragments) – Introduction to the Art of Belcanto voice and piano/celesta 1999
op. 41 Songs to Poems by Anna Achmatova (1997-in progress), for soprano and ensemble 1997-inprogress
op. 42 ...concertante... violin, viola and orchestra 2003
op. 43 Hipartita violin 2004
op. 44 Six Moments Musicaux string quartet 2005
op. 45 Triptic two violins 2007
op. 46 Colindă Baladă choir and nine instruments 2008 (?)
op. 47 Brefs messages for nine instruments 2011

Remarks:
  • op. 6 revoked, movements published as op. 6c and 6d
  • op. 10 unfinished, only 1-3 composed
  • op. 21 unfinished
  • op. 42 winner of the 2006 Grawemeyer Award
    Grawemeyer Award
    The Grawemeyer Awards are five awards given annually by the University of Louisville in the state of Kentucky, United States. The prizes are presented to individuals in the fields of education, ideas improving world order, music composition, religion, and psychology...

     for Music Composition.


Works without opus number:
  • Viola Concerto (1954)
  • Játékok
    Játékok
    Játékok is a collection of pedagogical performance pieces for piano , composed by György Kurtág since 1973, 8 Volumes as of 2010.-Concept:...

    ("Games") (since 1973, 8 Volumes as of 2010), for piano
  • In Memoriam György Zilcz (1975), for 2 trumpets, 2 trombones and tuba
  • 13 Pieces for Cimbalom (1982), for 2 cimbaloms
  • Games and Messages for winds (since 1984)
  • Transcriptions from Machaut to J.S. Bach (1985), for 4-hand and 6-hand piano and 2 pianos
  • János Pilinsky: Gérard de Nerval (1986), for violoncello
  • 3 In Memoriam (1988–90), for 1-hand, 2-hand and 3-hand piano
  • Signs, Games and Messages for solo violoncello or solo violin (since 1989)
  • Ligatura E Versetti (1990), for organ
  • Aus Der Ferne III (1991), for Alfred Schlee's 90th birthday, for string quartet
  • Looking Back: Old and New for Four Players, Hommage à Stockhausen (1993), for trumpet, double-bass and keyboard instruments
  • Epilog for Requiem of Reconciliation
    Requiem of Reconciliation
    The Requiem of Reconciliation was a collaborative work written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. It sets the Roman Catholic mass for the dead in fourteen sections, each written by a different composer from a country involved in the war...

     (1995)
  • Miriam Marbé in Memoriam (1999), for three recorders
  • Six Pieces for Trombone and Piano (1999)

Awards

  • UNESCO’s International Rostrum of Composers
    International Rostrum of Composers
    The International Rostrum of Composers is an annual forum organized by the International Music Council that offers broadcasting representatives the opportunity to exchange and publicize pieces of contemporary classical music...

    , 1983
  • Foundation for Contemporary Arts
    Foundation for Contemporary Arts
    Foundation for Contemporary Arts , originally known as Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, is a nonprofit based foundation in New York City founded by artists Jasper Johns , John Cage, Elaine de Kooning and others in 1963. FCA offers financial support and recognition to contemporary...

     Grants to Artists Award, 2000.
  • Sonning Award (2003; Denmark
    Denmark
    Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

    )
  • Grawemeyer Award
    Grawemeyer Award
    The Grawemeyer Awards are five awards given annually by the University of Louisville in the state of Kentucky, United States. The prizes are presented to individuals in the fields of education, ideas improving world order, music composition, religion, and psychology...

     (2006; U.S.
    United States
    The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

    )

Further reading

  • Halász, Péter. 1998. György Kurtág. Magyar zeneszerzok 3. Budapest: Mágus Kiadó. ISBN 9638278072.
  • Varga, Bálint András. 2009. György Kurtág: Three Interviews and Ligeti Homages. Eastman studies in Music. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press. ISBN 9781580463287.
  • Willson, Rachel Beckles. 1998a. "The Fruitful Tension between Inspiration and Design in Kurtág's The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza op.7". Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung 11:36–41.
  • Willson, Rachel Beckles. 1998b. "Kurtág's Instrumental Music, 1988–98". Tempo, new series, no. 207:15–21.
  • Willson. Rachel Beckles. 2001. "Kurtág, György". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie
    Stanley Sadie
    Stanley Sadie CBE was a leading British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , which was published as the first edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.Sadie was educated at St Paul's School,...

     and John Tyrrell
    John Tyrrell (professor of music)
    John Tyrrell was born in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia in 1942. He studied at the universities of Cape Town, Oxford and Brno. In 2000 he was appointed Research Professor at Cardiff University....

    . London: Macmillan Publishers.
  • Willson. Rachel Beckles. 2004. György Kurtág, The Sayings of Peter Bornemisza, op. 7: A "Concerto" for Soprano and Piano. Landmarks in Music Since 1950. Aldershot, Hants, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate. ISBN 9780754608097

External links


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