# György Kurtág



## Morimur

b.19 February 1926, Lugoj, Romania

Kurtág was born at Lugos (Lugoj in Romania) on 19 February 1926. From 1940 he took piano lessons from Magda Kardos and studied composition with Max Eisikovits in Timisoara. Moving to Budapest, he enrolled at the Academy of Music in 1946 where his teachers included Sándor Veress and Ferenc Farkas (composition), Pál Kadosa (piano) and Leó Weiner (chamber music). 

In 1957-58 Kurtág studied in Paris with Marianne Stein and attended the courses of Messiaen and Milhaud. As a result, he rethought his ideas on composition and marked the first work he wrote after his return to Budapest, a string quartet, as his opus 1. 

In 1958-63 Kurtág worked as a répétiteur with the Béla Bartók Music Secondary School in Budapest. In 1960-80 he was répétiteur with soloists of the National Philhamonia. From 1967 he was assistant to Pál Kadosa at the Academy of Music, and the following year he was appointed professor of chamber music. He held this post until his retirement in 1986 and subsequently continued to teach at the Academy until 1993. 

With increased freedom of movement in the 1990s he has worked increasingly outside Hungary, as composer in residence with the Berlin Philharmonic (1993-1994), with the Vienna Konzerthaus (1995), in the Netherlands (1996-98), in Berlin again (1998-99), and a Paris residency at the invitation of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Cité de la Musique and the Festival d’Automne. 

Kurtág won the prestigious 2006 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for his '...concertante...'.

György Kurtág is published by Boosey & Hawkes


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## Mahlerian

Wow, there really wasn't a Kurtag thread on this forum? I've found what I've heard of his music to be quite fascinating.


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## Alypius

Favorite work that I've heard:
Kurtag's _Signs, Games, and Messages_ (1989-present)

Kim Kashkashian, _Kurtag / Ligeti: Music for Viola_ (ECM, "New Series," 2012).


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## dgee

I have to explore Kurtag more but Stele is delicious:


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## Lukecash12

Alypius said:


> Favorite work that I've heard:
> Kurtag's _Signs, Games, and Messages_ (1989-present)
> 
> Kim Kashkashian, _Kurtag / Ligeti: Music for Viola_ (ECM, "New Series," 2012).


Fantastic references, you two. Can't believe I had never heard of this guy. Right now I'm listening to Stele and the layers of quarter tones are keeping me on edge. Suspended chords and tritone chords for a while, the woodwinds keep coming in and out, and now the strings are playing frantic melody fragments using mainly minor seconds, suspensions keep getting stacked until it's like a tone cluster that's been spaced out, everything goes silent. Very effective, I'll have to give this a few listens.

Are those woodblocks I'm hearing now? They sound delectable! If this is what I'm in for I think I'll have to get my hands on Alypius' reference. Oooh, now there is some kind of reverb echo effect coming from the strings, what chord is that (around seven and a half minutes in)?


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## Guest

Good call Lope! Missed this one.


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## Mahlerian

Here's the piece of his that won the Grawemeyer.


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## schigolch

I think Kurtág's music is growing and growing in recognition in the 21st century. Ascetic, spare, a true master of sounds.

I love also his vocal music. I was present at the premiere of _Songs to Poems by Anna Akhmatova_ some years ago, with Natalia Zagorinskaya singing, so I will link this very nice work, one of Kurtág's latest:


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## violadude

I've heard the opus 1 that Lope mentions in the OP. I've also heard his other music for string quartet (including one of my favorite pieces by him, the Mikroludian), as well as his chamber music collection called "Signs, Games and Messages" and two of his song cycles ("Holderin Songs" for solo bass and "Pas Nulle Pas"). I've really liked what I've heard of his music so far. I've always thought of his music as being composed with the sparseness of Webern combined with the fire of Bartok. The pieces are like explosive bursts of expression.

I wrote a review a few years ago on his Mikroludien for String Quartet if anyone wanted to check it out. http://rmusicreviews.wordpress.com/...roludien-for-string-quartet-by-gyorgy-kurtag/

These are the two discs I have by him.


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## Vaneyes

You'd never know it, but this CD also contains* Kurtag*: Grabstein fur Stephan; Stele.


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## Guest

Huh...am I the only one that can't see your other new threads any more?


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## Morimur

arcaneholocaust said:


> Huh...am I the only one that can't see your other new threads any more?


Apparently I forgot to quote my sources so they were deleted by the Mods for 'Gross Copyright Infringement'.


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## starthrower

Mahlerian said:


> Here's the piece of his that won the Grawemeyer.


Phenomenal! I've got to get the CD!


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## SuperTonic

My introduction to Kurtag was the Kafka Fragments for soprano and violin. 
It's made up of 40 movements, most of which are under a minute long. The fact that he can do so much with so little just blows my mind.


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## Mandryka

SuperTonic said:


> My introduction to Kurtag was the Kafka Fragments for soprano and violin.
> It's made up of 40 movements, most of which are under a minute long. The fact that he can do so much with so little just blows my mind.


This is a great piece of music IMO, every bit the equal of Winterreise.


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## Jobis

Alypius said:


> Favorite work that I've heard:
> Kurtag's _Signs, Games, and Messages_ (1989-present)
> 
> Kim Kashkashian, _Kurtag / Ligeti: Music for Viola_ (ECM, "New Series," 2012).


I read that as Kim Kardashian... I'm so ashamed!


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## tdc

The more I listen to Kurtag the more I'm convinced he is one of the best composers out there today, I've never heard a piece of his I didn't like. 

Thanks to violadude for introducing me to this composer a couple of years ago. :tiphat:


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## Jobis

tdc said:


> The more I listen to Kurtag the more I'm convinced he is one of the best composers out there today, I've never heard a piece of his I didn't like.
> 
> Thanks to violadude for introducing me to this composer a couple of years ago. :tiphat:


You're totally right there, he's one of those composers whose work already seems beyond the reach of criticism.


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## Guest

Another new fan here. Of the little I've heard, his music sounds like the love child of Webern and Bartok.


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## Guest

This is hard work. I ordered a Kurtag CD in December and it got lost in the Xmas post, with no replacement available. So I wait till January and order a different Kurtag album. I then get an email saying (contrary to the Amazon website) the album is no longer in stock and not foreseeably available. Thank goodness for Spotify!


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## violadude

tdc said:


> The more I listen to Kurtag the more I'm convinced he is one of the best composers out there today, I've never heard a piece of his I didn't like.
> 
> Thanks to violadude for introducing me to this composer a couple of years ago. :tiphat:


You're welcome


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## Morimur

Kurtág deserves the 'complete works' treatment. Wouldn't it be AWESOME if ECM was the label to do it? It's a perfect paring.


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## Guest

Morimur said:


> Kurtág deserves the 'complete works' treatment. Wouldn't it be AWESOME if ECM was the label to do it? It's a perfect paring.


But, sadly, ECM has never done a complete works, to my knowledge?


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## Morimur

nathanb said:


> But, sadly, ECM has never done a complete works, to my knowledge?


Nope, don't think so.


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## Guest

Morimur said:


> Nope, don't think so.


But while we're dreaming, they should go ahead and do a Complete Heinz Holliger while they're at it.


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## GioCar

SuperTonic said:


> My introduction to Kurtag was the Kafka Fragments for soprano and violin.
> It's made up of 40 movements, most of which are under a minute long. The fact that he can do so much with so little just blows my mind.


Here's a brand new recording, just released by BIS










Yesterday I downloaded it from eclassical.com, the sister site of the CD label for downloading their (and others) recordings.
What I've heard till now is amazing


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## PeterFromLA

Kurtag has a two hour (!) opera set to premiere this week, titled Endgame, after the Samuel Beckett play.

The NY Times has just published a feature on Kurtag and this new work in the run-up to the premiere:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/arts/music/gyorgy-kurtag-opera.html


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## starthrower

Good luck to Mr Kurtag with his opera. I don't think I could endure it. I've lost interest in most of the edgy Avant garde stuff lately. Although I remain a fan of the pioneers. Maybe I'll come around again? I hope so, since I bought a couple of double CD sets of Kurtag's music.


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## Portamento

PeterFromLA said:


> Kurtag has a two hour (!) opera set to premiere this week, titled Endgame, after the Samuel Beckett play.
> 
> The NY Times has just published a feature on Kurtag and this new work in the run-up to the premiere:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/arts/music/gyorgy-kurtag-opera.html


This is very exciting!


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## Janspe

After revisiting _...quasi una fantasia..._ and the _Double Concerto_ (together forming his Op. 27) I'm once again convinced that this is some of the greatest music ever penned down by a human being.

There are moments in the former work that make me forget that any other music exist; though it's a very brief work, it touches upon something that no one else quite manages to reach.

The _Kafka-Fragmente_, the string quartet works, _Stele_, _Grabstein für Stephan_, the _Messages of the Late Miss R.V. Troussova_... It's pure magic. What a composer, what a genius. And I think (hopefully, at least) that I don't make such claims very easily.

Anyone else in a Kurtág mood these days? His recent opera has been causing quite a stir in some circles, though I haven't had the time to look into it yet. I want to save it for a rainy day...


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## flamencosketches

Janspe, I take your opinions with a lot of weight because I feel like we share a lot of common ground, and you clearly know much more about music than me. So once I get around to checking out that Gubaidulina piece, I will get round to Kurtág's op.27. It sounds like he is quite prolific...? Or at least more so than his idol, Anton Webern?


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## Janspe

flamencosketches said:


> Janspe, I take your opinions with a lot of weight because I feel like we share a lot of common ground, and you clearly know much more about music than me. So once I get around to checking out that Gubaidulina piece, I will get round to Kurtág's op.27. It sounds like he is quite prolific...? Or at least more so than his idol, Anton Webern?


I was actually just thinking that you simply *must* get to know Kurtág's music, since our musical tastes seem to be pretty similar indeed. Your love for Webern will certainly lead you straight into Kurtág's aphoristic, shimmering world! I'm looking forward to hearing what you think.

Kurtág is definitely not very prolific in comparison to some composers, though his output is bigger than Webern's. He works on pieces _forever_ and keeps revising them endlessly; but I think the end results speak for themselves. There's plenty to discover and his imaginative pieces will keep anyone fascinated for a lifetime - well, that might be a bit rich coming from a 26-year-old's mouth, but I'm quite convinced I'll never tire of his works.

Currently listening to the _Songs of Despair and Sorrow_, Op. 18. Harrowing stuff.

PS. I must protest against you saying that I know more about music than you, there's no way of knowing; and I definitely feel like I've only scratched the surface of the world of classical music...


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## flamencosketches

Janspe said:


> Currently listening to the _Songs of Despair and Sorrow_, Op. 18. Harrowing stuff.


Hey, I just put that on after my last post. This is one of the choral works I'd heard previously, and it is really good! Definitely Webernian, in a pretty true sense - many composers were influenced by Webern, such as Boulez, but if they were trying to write in the vein of his music, they failed pretty miserably I'd say. The influence must have come on more of a surface or technical level, and I don't consider Boulez, Nono, or Stockhausen to be worthy successors to Webern's tradition. So it's interesting hearing music that really got to the heart of what Webern was going for and built on that... though I must disclaim that this is my opinion after 15 minutes of listening.

But I'm going to seek out those other works you'd mentioned. Definitely excited to check out his other music.

Are there any recordings you would recommend? I imagine he is not widely recorded.

Funny, I was just thinking about Kurtág the other day. András Schiff casually name dropped him during one of his Beethoven sonata lectures, saying he had been a student of his at the Franz Liszt Academy.

Re: knowing more about music, I meant more specifically classical music, 20th and 21st century stuff especially. This whole world of classical music is something I've just begun dipping my toes into over this past winter. Perhaps I know more than you do about hip-hop and drum & bass (& perhaps not), but your knowledge of modern classical music is pretty astounding, especially being that you're a young cat like myself. But in any case, you're right, no way of knowing!


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## Janspe

flamencosketches said:


> Are there any recordings you would recommend? I imagine he is not widely recorded.


Actually, quite a lot of his works have been (fortunately!) recorded. Of course there are some gaps, but I'd say that exploring his work is quite easy these days. There's one (relatively recent) release that is absolutely _essential_ for anyone interested in Kurtág:









Don't even try to decipher what the title of the album means; what matters is that this recording brings together _a lot_ of top-notch Kurtág in excellent performances. It cuts through his output very intelligently, and gives a great overview of his art.

I'm very fond of the Quatuor Molinari and their recording of the string quartet works:









As a Webernian these works will definitely appeal to you. It's truly a stunning continuation of the noble string quartet tradition! By the way, the same quartet has also recorded Gubaidulina's four quartets and a few other works, just in case you're interested in exploring her output further!

There's plenty more to recommend, obviously, but the _Kafka-Fragments_ cannot be emphasized enough - there are plenty of recordings on Spotify, just pick one and go for it; maybe even go through them all! It's a monument of 20th century music.

The _Játékok_ and the _Jelek, játékok és üzenetek_ - tiny little pieces for piano (for various amounts of players) and other solo instruments - are universes on their own, but I haven't explored then enough to give any detailed commentary. It's *most definitely* worth it to check György and Márta play them together on a piano - magical.


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## flamencosketches

Excellent. Thanks. 

I love Reinbert de Leeuw's recordings of Erik Satie's piano music, but I've not heard any of his work as a conductor. In any case, that one is going on the list. Too bad ECM records are so pricey. Perhaps I'm being a cheapskate, but it pains me to spend $35 for a single disc. Anyway, I trust you that it's worth it. 

The Molinari Quartet disc looks great too. In terms of Anton Webern's music, his string quartet and trio music is some of my absolute favorite, so I might expect Kurtág to excel here too. Any interest in the Keller Quartet disc on ECM? They have recorded his string chamber music too. I love their recordings of Ligeti.

Looks like there are indeed a lot of recordings of the Kafka-Fragments. I'll look out for one of them. 

Thanks for your help. With these contemporary composers, I never know where to start. They have either written mountains of music or very little, and there is hardly ever much variety when it comes to recordings – but of course, quality of performance can really make or break when it comes to music like this.


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## Janspe

flamencosketches said:


> Too bad ECM records are so pricey. Perhaps I'm being a cheapskate, but it pains me to spend $35 for a single disc. Anyway, I trust you that it's worth it.


I fully agree that it's often annoying to pay these high prices for recordings, but do note that this one has two and a half hours of music on it! So it's not just one CD. It's still pricey (as a poor student I'm always struggling with this...) but I definitely think it's worth it.



flamencosketches said:


> Any interest in the Keller Quartet disc on ECM? They have recorded his string chamber music too. I love their recordings of Ligeti.


I must admit that I've been listening to the Molinari Quartet in this repertoire so much that I struggle to remember the merits of other recordings. However, I've heard the Keller Quartet's take as well and if my memory serves me, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. Usually musicians who want to play Kurtág take it very seriously (as they should) and in general I've been pleased with the recordings I've heard.



flamencosketches said:


> Thanks for your help. With these contemporary composers, I never know where to start. They have either written mountains of music or very little, and there is hardly ever much variety when it comes to recordings - but of course, quality of performance can really make or break when it comes to music like this.


This is so true. The biggest step towards familiarizing oneself with a composer's work is the first one - after that it becomes easier. Have you ever read Tom Service's intriguing *Guide to Contemporary Music* at The Guardian? It's a collection of articles, each dedicated to one composer, that informs the reader about the life and work of a selection of contemporary composers. I personally found it very useful - even though I don't always agree with Mr. Service - and I've discovered many composers I love through the articles, including Elliott Carter and Helmut Lachenmann.


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## Kjetil Heggelund

Kurtág is my favorite contemporary composer at the moment! Working my way through "Endgame" now, bit by bit. Grabstein for Stephan is the one I've heard the most. I will probably buy a CD to hear in the car, but will try to get something not available on spotify. Suggestions are welcome!


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## Janspe

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> Working my way through "Endgame" now, bit by bit.


I'd be very much interested in hearing about your impressions of that work so far, if you don't mind sharing! I haven't listened to it yet; I'm saving it for a rainy day... It feels like such an important achievement, knowing Kurtág's compositional struggles and his tendency not to write in such big forms.



Kjetil Heggelund said:


> Grabstein for Stephan is the one I've heard the most.


Amazing piece. I remember when I first heard it, I couldn't believe my ears - it felt like such a breath of fresh air, unlike anything I had experienced before. To this day I'm very fond of the piece since it introduced me to Kurtág's music so effectively.

I'm enjoying discussing Kurtág a lot! I have almost no one in "real life" to talk about him with - except my partner, whose enthusiasm for the _Wind Quintet_ and the _Kafka-Fragments_ made me curious to see what all the fuss is about.


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## Kjetil Heggelund

http://www.musicandliterature.org/features/2018/11/20/hearing-gyrgy-kurtg-reading-samuel-beckett-pg
Here's a link to Paul Griffiths writing about Endgame. He is a clever man! 
Right now I'm hearing the last minute of the opera (on youtube) and I want to hear it again in my studio at home, in one go. I was hoping to find something on the instrumentation. AH! The ending is fantastic, just wait! The work is never boring, it has accordion  I don't know what I can say more...It seems like everyone who has reviewed it, loved everything about it!


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## flamencosketches

Janspe said:


> This is so true. The biggest step towards familiarizing oneself with a composer's work is the first one - after that it becomes easier. Have you ever read Tom Service's intriguing *Guide to Contemporary Music* at The Guardian? It's a collection of articles, each dedicated to one composer, that informs the reader about the life and work of a selection of contemporary composers. I personally found it very useful - even though I don't always agree with Mr. Service - and I've discovered many composers I love through the articles, including Elliott Carter and Helmut Lachenmann.


I've not. I'll check it out, thanks. Good call on that disc, Amazon lists it as a single CD for some reason.

Well, I'll report back here when I decide to shell out the money for that ECM set.


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## starthrower

Check out the Kurtag 80 double set. The whole thing is on YouTube.


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## PeterFromLA

Sad to report that Marta Kurtag, Gyorgy's wife, muse, collaborator, and joint recitalist, has passed away. October 16, 2019. https://www.rhinegold.co.uk/international_piano/marta-kurtag-dies-aged-92/


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## Portamento

PeterFromLA said:


> Sad to report that Marta Kurtag, Gyorgy's wife, muse, collaborator, and joint recitalist, has passed away. October 16, 2019. https://www.rhinegold.co.uk/international_piano/marta-kurtag-dies-aged-92/


Horrible news...


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## flamencosketches

PeterFromLA said:


> Sad to report that Marta Kurtag, Gyorgy's wife, muse, collaborator, and joint recitalist, has passed away. October 16, 2019. https://www.rhinegold.co.uk/international_piano/marta-kurtag-dies-aged-92/


Very sad news. Rest in peace, Mrs. Kurtág.


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## millionrainbows

flamencosketches said:


> Too bad ECM records are so pricey. Perhaps I'm being a cheapskate, but it pains me to spend $35 for a single disc.


It's 3 CDs, if that makes a difference. Presto has it for $22, plus $4 shipping.


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