György Kurtág
György Kurtág is one of the more highly esteemed composers of the late twentieth century. He is not well known outside of Europe, writing little and not prone to acts of self-promotion. Most composers would not have been able to establish a career in this manner.
His hometown changed hands from Hungary to Romania. What he saw while under Communist rule before he went west no doubt shaped the peculiar tensions of his music, which often sounds like lessons learned through surviving persecution. In 1940, he studied piano with Magda Kardos and composition from Max Eisikovits, at Temesvár (Timisoara, Romania). He then moved to Budapest in 1946, enrolling in the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, studying composition with Sándor Veress and Ferenc Farkas, as well as piano with Pál Kadosa and chamber music with Leó Weiner. These people remained proud Hungarians, though war had altered the international borders drastically. Kurtág officially became a Hungarian citizen in 1948. In the early part of the 1950s, he continued his studies of composition, chamber music, and piano. He was an outstanding student, winning the Erkl prize in 1954 and 1956. In 1957 - 1958 he went west for a one-year stay in Paris, studying with Marianne Stein and attending courses of Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen.
Though the standard of living in democratic France was no doubt higher than communist Hungary, Kurtág returned home as repetiteur of soloists with the Hungarian National Philharmonia throughout most the 1960s. He was also professor at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, first of piano, then of chamber music. In 1971, he had his second appointment in the west. This time it was a one-year stay in West Berlin as grantee of the DAAD scholarship. His reputation began to gain more ground.
What little he had written demonstrated itself as the work of genius, beginning with the brief Quartetto per archi opus 1 from 1959. A perfect synthesis of Webern and Bartók, this work has an undistracted intelligence about it, a courage that intellectuals required to survive the tyranny of the Soviets. He did seem entirely at odds with the Communists, having written some works with anti-American sentiment, but this appeared exclusively before his visit to Paris in the 1950s. The 1960s and 1970s were been fairly uneventful, and his catalog continued to grow at a startlingly slow rate. However, what works he had written made a large impression.
After his retirement from the Liszt Academy in 1986, he lived in Germany and Austria. In 1987, one year after leaving Hungary, he immediately became a member of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, Munich, as well as a member of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin. His works were getting more sought after, and he was relentlessly sought after as an instructor.
Living at a comparatively brisker, international pace, in 1993 he was awarded the Prix de Composition Musicale by the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco, for his Grabstein für Stephan and Op. 27 No. 2 (Double Concerto); the Herder Prize by the Freiherr-vom-Stein Stiftung, Hamburg; and the Premio Feltrinelli by the Accademia dei Lincei, Rome. That same year, Kurtág was invited to stay in Berlin as composer in residence with the Berliner Philharmoniker for two years. This was followed by a residency with the Wiener Konzerthaus and, in 1998, the Kossuth Prize from the Hungarian states for his life's work.
Kurtág had carved his place in the Western world while still behind the Iron Curtain, emerging in the 1980s as an indisputably necessary voice.
© TiVo
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Diskografie
14 Album, -en • Geordnet nach Bestseller
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Kurtág, Bach: Játékok
Klassik - Erschienen bei ECM New Series am 01.09.1997
Qobuz’ Schallplattensammlung16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kurtág: Musik für Streichinstrumente
Keller Quartett, György Kurtág, Miklos Perenyi
Klassik - Erschienen bei ECM New Series am 01.10.1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Face à Face
Jazz - Erschienen bei ECM Records am 19.08.2022
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
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The Edge of Silence: Works for Voice by György Kurtág
Klassik - Erschienen bei AVIE Records am 02.08.2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Kurtágonals
László Hortobágyi, György Kurtág, Miklós Lengyelfi
Klassik - Erschienen bei ECM New Series am 19.06.2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Games, Chorales & Fantasy
Klassik - Erschienen bei Claves Records am 26.08.2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
György Kurtág: Diary Entries, Personal Messages // SFB recordings 2001
New Age - Erschienen bei VN am 17.02.2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kurtág: Play Kurtág
Klassik - Erschienen bei BMC Records am 18.03.2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza
Gábor Csalog, Tony Arnold, György Kurtág
Klassik - Erschienen bei BMC Records am 19.02.2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Face à Face
Jazz - Erschienen bei ECM Records am 19.08.2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kurtág: Játékok, Selections from Volumes 1-4
Klassik - Erschienen bei SWRmusic am 25.04.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Játékok - Selection 2
Klassik - Erschienen bei BMC Records am 25.11.2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Works for Soprano
Adrienne Csengery, András Keller, Marta Fabian, György Kurtág, Ferenc Csontos
Vokalmusik (weltlich und geistlich) - Erschienen bei Hungaroton am 01.01.1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo