György Kurtág

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György Kurtág (2014)

György Kurtág ( Hungarian Kurtág György [ ˈkurtaːɡ ˈɟørɟ ], born February 19, 1926 in Lugoj , Romania ) is a Hungarian - French composer , pianist and chamber music teacher. Along with György Ligeti and Péter Eötvös, he is considered the most internationally successful Hungarian composer after 1945.

life and work

György Kurtág was born in 1926 into a Hungarian-speaking, assimilated Jewish family in the Banat in Romania. At the age of five he received his first piano lessons from his mother. From 1940 he received piano lessons from Magda Kardos and theory and composition lessons from Max Eisikovits in Timișoara , where he attended high school. After graduating from high school, he illegally crossed the border between Romania and Hungary in 1945 and moved to Budapest. Two years later he became a Hungarian citizen. After passing the entrance exam to the Franz Liszt Music Academy , he continued his studies in composition with Sándor Veress (1946–1949) and, after his emigration, with Pál Járdányi and Ferenc Farkas (1949–1955), in piano with Pál Kadosa and in chamber music with Leó Weiner gone. As a student he was close to the communist party. In 1951 he graduated in piano and chamber music, and in 1955 in composition. At the music academy he made friends with György Ligeti († 2006), whom he had already met in 1945.

In the course of the Hungarian uprising in 1956 he received a passport and stayed in Paris in 1957/58 , where he attended courses with Max Deutsch , Darius Milhaud (composition) and Olivier Messiaen (analysis). The encounter with the Hungarian art psychologist Marianne Stein was of decisive importance for his compositional development during this academic year. He studied the music of Pierre Boulez and became familiar with the Second Vienna School around Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern , from whom he copied scores. He also came into contact with plays by Samuel Beckett . During a trip to Cologne he got to know Ligeti's articulation and Karlheinz Stockhausen's groups . From 1958 to 1963 he was a piano accompanist at the Béla Bartók Middle School for Music in Budapest. From 1960 to 1968 he also worked as a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Philharmonic. From 1967 he was professor for piano, from 1969 to 1986 for chamber music at the music academy. Until 1993 he continued to teach individual students. András Schiff and Zoltán Kocsis u. a. were in his piano class. He then worked as a chamber music teacher. In 1971 he lived in West Berlin on an artist grant from the DAAD .

In 1993 he became composer in residence of the Berliner Philharmoniker for two years at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin . This was followed by stays at the Wiener Konzerthaus as composer in residence, he also taught the master class (1995/96) and at the Koninklijk Conservatorium The Hague as an honorary professor (1996). From 1996 to 1998 he stayed in the Netherlands. In 1998/99 he was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. From 1999 he lived in Paris at the invitation of the Paris Conservatory , the Cité de la musique , the Festival d'automne à Paris and the Ensemble intercontemporain . In 1998 he became a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. From 1987 to 1993 he was a member of the music section of the Academy of the Arts in West Berlin and from 1990 to 1993 a corresponding member of the German Academy of the Arts in East Berlin, since then he has been a member of the All-German Academy. In 1999 he was awarded the Pour le Mérite Order for Science and the Arts . In 1994 he became an honorary member of the International Society for New Music , in 2001 an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 2015 of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is also the Distinguished Patron of the International Kodály Society .

György Kurtág is now considered the most important Hungarian composer after 1945, alongside György Ligeti and Péter Eötvös . While Ligeti left Hungary in 1956 and quickly became a celebrated composer in Western Europe, Kurtág initially remained active as a music teacher in Budapest. He was the only internationally recognized composer to remain in Hungary throughout the communist era. So it remained for a long time only an "insider tip" among the initiated. It was not until the late 1970s that his music began to become known in Germany; He achieved his international breakthrough in 1981 with the Paris world premiere of Poslanija pokojnoj R. V. Trusovoj by the Ensemble intercontemporain under Sylvain Cambreling . Today his works are shown at festivals and the like worldwide. a. and are available in various CD recordings ( ECM Records, etc.). His works are published by Editio Musica Budapest and Universal Edition in Vienna.

From 1947 until her death on October 17, 2019, he worked with the pianist Márta Kurtág , b. Kinsker, married; they had a son together. From 2001 to 2015 he lived in Saint-André-de-Cubzac near Bordeaux in southwest France , and in Budapest since 2015. In 2002 he received French citizenship in addition to his Hungarian citizenship .

Awards

Works (selection)

Orchestra (with soloists)

  • Viola Concerto (1953–1954)
  • Four Capriccios op. 9 based on poems by István Bálint for soprano and chamber orchestra
  • Gravestone for Stephan op.15c for guitar and groups of instruments distributed in the room
  • Messages de feu demoiselle RV Troussova (Messages from the faded RV Trussova) op. 17 for soprano and ensemble
  • … Quasi una fantasia… op. 27, 1 for piano and orchestral groups
  • Double concerto op. 27, 2 for piano, violoncello and two chamber ensembles
  • Samuel Beckett: What is the word op.30b for alto and chamber ensemble
  • Stele op. 33 for large orchestra
  • Messages op. 34 for orchestra
  • … Concertante… op. 42 for violin, viola and large orchestra
  • Petite Musique solennelle en hommage à Pierre Boulez 90 for orchestra

Opera

  • Fin de partie , opera in one act after Samuel Beckett for bass (Hamm), baritone (Clov), alto (Nell), tenor (Nagg) and orchestra

Choir

  • Omaggio a luigi nono op.16 for mixed choir a cappella
  • Eight choirs on poems by Dezső Tandori op. 23 for mixed choir a cappella
  • Songs of Melancholy and Mourning Op. 18 for mixed choir with instruments

Chamber music with singing

  • The Proverbs of Péter Bornemisza op. 7 for soprano and piano
  • Four songs to poems by János Pilinszky op.11 for bass and ensemble
  • Scenes from a novel op 19 for soprano, violin, double bass and cymbal
  • Fragments (based on poems by Attila József ) op.20 for soprano and ensemble
  • Kafka Fragments, Op. 24 for soprano and violin
  • Three old inscriptions op. 25 for soprano and piano
  • Requiem po drugu op. 26 for soprano and piano
  • Friedrich Hölderlin: AN… op. 29 for tenor and piano
  • Hölderlin-Gesänge op. 35 for voice and instruments
  • Some movements from Lichtenberg's Sudel books op.37 for soprano (with or without instruments)

Chamber music

  • String Quartet op.1
  • Wind quintet op.2
  • Eight Duos op. 4 for violin and cymbal
  • Hommage a Mihály András op. 13 twelve micro-studies for string quartet
  • Homage A R. Sch. Op. 15d for clarinet, viola and piano
  • Officium Breve op.28 for string quartet
  • Ligatura - Message to Frances-Marie op.31b for two cellos, two violins and celesta
  • Signs, games and messages for strings (work in progress)
  • 6 moments musicaux op. 44 for string quartet
  • Bagatellek (Bagatelles) op. 14 / d for flute, double bass and piano

Solo works

  • Eight piano pieces op.3
  • Jelek op. 5 for viola
  • Splitter op.6c for cymbal
  • Játékok for piano (Work in progress)
  • Hipartita op.43 for solo violin (premiere: 2005)

literature

Web links

Commons : György Kurtág  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fellowfinder: György Kurtág , www.wiko-berlin.de, accessed on January 7, 2018.
  2. ↑ Music: Corresponding Members , www.badsk.de, accessed on January 6, 2018.
  3. ↑ Kurtág, György , www.iscm.org, accessed on January 6, 2018.
  4. ↑ Honorary Members: György Kurtág. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 13, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter K. (PDF; 670 kB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved January 6, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Distinguished Patrons of the IKS , www.iks.hu, accessed January 7, 2018.
  7. ↑ Valentina Sandu-Dediu (ex. Sorin Georgescu), Eastern Europe, in: Jörn Peter Hiekel , Christian Utz (ed.), Lexikon Neue Musik, Stuttgart / Kassel 2016, pp. 487–501, here: pp. 497f.
  8. ↑ György Kurtág , www.ecmrecords.com, accessed on January 7, 2018.
  9. ^ ISCM Honorary Members
  10. ↑ Budapest új díszpolgárai , archivum.ujszo.com (Új Szó), November 20, 2001, accessed on January 6, 2018.
  11. ↑ György Kurtág, Sibelius Prize Winner 2012 , wihuriprizes.fi, accessed on January 7, 2018.
  12. ↑ The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award , lfze.hu, February 10, 2015, accessed on January 7, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Kurtág, György
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian composer
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Lugoj , Romania