Márta Kurtág

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Márta Kurtág , b. Márta Kinsker , often Marta Kurtag (born October 1, 1927 in Esztergom ; † October 17, 2019 in Budapest ), was a Hungarian classical pianist . She was the wife of the composer György Kurtág , with whom she often performed internationally for more than 60 years and made recordings. At times she taught school music at the Budapest Music Academy.

Life

Márta Kurtág was born in Esztergom . She studied piano with András Mihály and Leó Weiner . She met György Kurtág , her future husband, in Budapest, where he studied at the Franz Liszt Music Academy from 1946 . They married in 1947 and their son György was born in 1954. From 1953 she taught at the Béla Bartók Music School in Budapest. Her husband completed his studies in 1955.

After the Hungarian uprising , the couple lived in Paris for two years from 1957, where they studied with Max Deutsch , Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud . From 1972 she taught school music at the Franz Liszt Music Academy.

Márta Kurtág (center) with Sára Gerlóczy and György Kurtág , 2014

Márta Kurtág was influential in every area of ​​her husband's life, not only as a wife and mother, but also as a piano partner, and as the first and critical listener of his works in the making. The two performed together for more than 60 years, in concerts, on the radio and for recordings. They often played from his collection Játékok ( games ) of miniatures for piano for two and four hands, which also contains arrangements of works by Johann Sebastian Bach . Later editions of Játékok mark the pieces as diary impressions and personal messages.

In 2004, when György Kurtág was featured in the composer portrait of the Rheingau Music Festival , she played in one of the concerts with him from Játékok . In 2008 they gave concerts at the Aldeburgh Festival with the violinist Hiromi Kikuchi and the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard . One review pointed out that their playing on a piano emphasized their ethos of simplicity and modesty, and that they played as if for their own pleasure (“… their performance embodies a lot about the Kurtág ethos of simplicity and understatement. They sit before a humble upright piano, just as if they were at home, in private, playing for their own enjoyment. ")

They played pieces from the collection in the Zankel Hall of Carnegie Hall in New York City in 2009, in Paris at the Festivals d'Automne and Piano aux Jacobins, in the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume in Aix-en-Provence , in the Library of Congress in Washington and the Tonhalle Zurich . When her husband received the gold medal from the Royal Philharmonic Society in London in 2013 , they played together at Queen Elizabeth Hall .

Márta Kurtág died on October 17, 2019 in Budapest.

Recordings

In 1997, Játékok / György Kurtág and Márta Kurtág appeared on ECM Records , with some of the Bach transcriptions such as the sonatina from Bach's cantata Gottes Zeit ist der verybest Zeit , BWV 106. In 1999 she played Beethoven's Diabelli Variations for BMC in 2015 they brought Marta & Gyorgy Kurtág: Out in Memoriam Haydée , also with excerpts from Játékok and Bach's Sonatina. A recording with pieces from Játékok and a suite for four hands was released in 2017, which contains radio recordings by Magyar Rádió between 1955 and 2001.

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David Allen: Marta Kurtag Dies at 92, Sundering a Profound Musical Partnership. In: The New York Times , October 25, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g György Kurtág ( French ) France Musique . October 21, 2019. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  3. ↑ Rachel Beckles Willson: Kurtág, György ( English ) 2001. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  4. ↑ a b Játékok / György Kurtág, Márta Kurtág ( English ) Editio Musica Budapest. September 1, 1997. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  5. ↑ a b György Kurtág ( French ) IRCAM - Center Pompidou. 2008. Retrieved January 25, 2010.
  6. ↑ Márta Kurtág ( English ) BBC . Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  7. ^ A b Benjamin Ivry: György Kurtág: Great Hungarian Jewish Composer, No Monk . In: The Forward . February 6, 2009. Accessed October 22, 2019.
  8. ^ Rheingau Music Festival: Baroque splendor, sacred triumph . In: FAZ , February 17, 2004. Retrieved October 22, 2019. 
  9. ↑ a b Anne Ozorio: Aldeburgh Festival 2008 (4 and 5): Bach, Kurtág György Kurtág, Márta Kurtág, (piano), Hiromi Kikuchi (violin), Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano) ( English ) June 2008 September 2019.
  10. ↑ Erica Jeal: György and Márta Kurtág / Kikuchi - review / The Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag Showed emphatically why the Royal Philharmonic Society bestowed its gold medal on him (English) . In: The Guardian , December 3, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2019. 
  11. ↑ György Kurtág ( English ) ECM Records . Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  12. ↑ Marta & Gyorgy Kurtág: In Memoriam Haydée / Játékok (Games and Transcriptions for piano solo and four hands) ( English ) 2015. Accessed October 22, 2010.
  13. ↑ Jonathan Woolf: György Kurtág (b. 1926) / Pieces from the Játékok (Games) piano series / Suite for Four Hands (1950-51) ( English ) February 2017. Accessed September 27, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Kurtág, Márta
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kinsker, Márta (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian classical pianist
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Esztergom
DATE OF DEATH 17th October 2019
Place of death Budapest