Viktoriia Vitrenko|György Kurtág: Scenes (Scenes from a Novel, Op. 19, Eight Duos for Violin and Cimbalom, Op. 4, Seven Songs, Op. 22, In memory of a Winter evening, Op. 8, Several Movements from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg's Sudelbücher 'Scrapbooks', Op. 37a & Hommage à Be (Scenes from a Novel, Op. 19, Eight Duos for Violin and Cimbalom, Op. 4, Seven Songs, Op. 22, In memory of a Winter evening, Op. 8, Several Movements from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg's Sudelbücher 'Scrapbooks', Op. 37a & Hommage à Berényi Ferenc 70)

György Kurtág: Scenes (Scenes from a Novel, Op. 19, Eight Duos for Violin and Cimbalom, Op. 4, Seven Songs, Op. 22, In memory of a Winter evening, Op. 8, Several Movements from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg's Sudelbücher 'Scrapbooks', Op. 37a & Hommage à Be (Scenes from a Novel, Op. 19, Eight Duos for Violin and Cimbalom, Op. 4, Seven Songs, Op. 22, In memory of a Winter evening, Op. 8, Several Movements from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg's Sudelbücher 'Scrapbooks', Op. 37a & Hommage à Berényi Ferenc 70)

Viktoriia Vitrenko, David Grimal, Luigi Gaggero & Niek de Groot

Released on 8/2/19 by audite Musikproduktion
Main artists: Viktoriia Vitrenko David Grimal Luigi Gaggero Niek de Groot
Genre: Classical

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In the history of music, György Kurtág is a figure apart. Born in Hungary in 1926, he stood aside from the great ideological movements of his time and created his own personal language in solitude, thinking of music as he put it, "as an ongoing search". But while doggedly independent, he was also a man of culture whose language developed in the shadow of two great teachers: Bartók and Beethoven, the former following on largely from the latter. A champion of the small form, Kurtág also drew inspiration (when he wasn't revisiting them explicitly) from Bach, Schubert and Schumann.

This thrilling album offers a journey through the composer's private world, with pieces that take in song (a leitmotif of his oeuvre), violin, cimbalom and double bass – instruments of Hungarian folk tradition.

From the poetic highlights of Stsenï iz romana ("Scenes from a novel on poems by Rimma Dalos") sung in Russian, to the Homage to his friend, the painter Berényi Ferenc, this perfectly-performed recording follows the trail of a particularly secret and captivating composer. The Eight Duets for Violin and Cimbalom, Op.4 are taken in hand by a Hungarian virtuoso playing one of his favourite instruments, the cimbalom, which is at once typical of Magyar culture and a link to the medieval psalter. The Seven Songs, Op.22 evoke Japanese haikus through their brevity and content, and conjure up the stunning final image of a snail ascending Mount Fuji. Egy Téli alkony emlékére ("In memory of a Winter evening") is a very expressive and moving rendering of long evenings spent at the fireside.

The Russian poet Rimma Dalos summed up Kurtág's personality: "Kurtág always chose the minimalist and the romantic. The poetry of the small form, the aphorism, a weightlessness which is at the same time very weighty. To speak without saying it all, to graze but not break, to penetrate without betraying." We couldn't put it better. © François Hudry/Qobuz

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György Kurtág: Scenes (Scenes from a Novel, Op. 19, Eight Duos for Violin and Cimbalom, Op. 4, Seven Songs, Op. 22, In memory of a Winter evening, Op. 8, Several Movements from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg's Sudelbücher 'Scrapbooks', Op. 37a & Hommage à Be (Scenes from a Novel, Op. 19, Eight Duos for Violin and Cimbalom, Op. 4, Seven Songs, Op. 22, In memory of a Winter evening, Op. 8, Several Movements from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg's Sudelbücher 'Scrapbooks', Op. 37a & Hommage à Berényi Ferenc 70)

Viktoriia Vitrenko

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Scenes from a Novel ('Stsenï iz romana'), Op. 19 - 15 Songs to Poems by R. Dalos: I. Come

Viktoriia Vitrenko