Formed in 1996, the New Hungarian Music Society (UMZE) led by Zoltán Rácz has undertaken to preserve the life’s work of György Ligeti in a fashion worthy of the late composer. Since 2006 it has organised an evening of Ligeti’s works to mark his birthday, selecting a varied programme from his fantastically colourful oeuvre to provide the listener with a cross-section and representative sample of Ligeti’s wonderful art. The first part of the 2012 memorial concert will feature works from Ligeti’s early period reflecting the influence of Bartók and folk music. First we will hear a selection of piano pieces for both two and four hands, written between 1942 and 1950 and performed by Gábor Csalog and András Kemenes. This will be followed by the symphonic Concert Românesc and a vocal cycle set to the verse of János Arany, sung by Tünde Szabóki. The Three Weöres Songs (1970), meanwhile, reveal the mature and established composer. After emigrating in 1956, Ligeti became well known for his French-titled pieces beginning with the letter “A,” of which we will hear Apparitions from 1959, with its 63 instrumental parts, and Atmosphères from 1961, which requires an even larger number of performers. The “Ligeti sound” so characteristic of the composer until the end of his life had already come into being in these two works. The Viola Sonata composed in 1991-94 for Tabea Zimmermann was one of Ligeti’s last works, the first movement of which (Hora lunga, or slow dance) is played exclusively on the C string. The work captures the changing musical tastes of the composer and his time, from folk music to jazz to exotic forms, while the title of the last movement (Chaconne chromatique) refers directly to Bach – although even in its historical allusions it remains emphatically the work of the mature Ligeti. Presented by: Palace of Arts

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