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classical music, opera, theatre
Kurtág 95 - Messages and Games...
Scenes from the lives of György and Márta Kurtág
20 February 2021, Saturday
6:30 pm - 9 pm
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Jeney

Márta Kurtág's Watermark

György Kurtág

János Pilinszky: Gérard de Nerval

György Kurtág

Games VII/17 - Hommage à Berényi Ferenc 70 (Kelemen Mikes Says)

György Kurtág

Splinters, Op. 6c - IV. Mesto

György Kurtág

Games III/25 - Hommage à Farkas Ferenc No. 2 (Scraps of a Colinda Melody Faintly Recollected)

György Kurtág

Signs, Games and Messages - Hommage à Elliott Carter

György Kurtág

Games I/7 - Bored

György Kurtág

Games I/15 - Elbows

György Kurtág

Games III/14 - Tumble-bunny

György Kurtág

...to sleep, - no more..., (Songs to poems by Dezső Tandori) Op. 50 - 1. Hamlet's consent, 2. Alert, 3. Hamlet's consent [alio modo]

György Kurtág

AB Games for voice - Exercises and experimental solutions (Two songs to poems by Dezső Tandori) - 1. D.T. End-of-summer school vocabulary for Sándor Weöres, 2. Watermark

György Kurtág

Márta's Ligature

Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer

In memoria aeterna (Funeral music in memory of Márta Kurtág) - I. Introitus, II. Stanza, III. Hymnos

We're broadcasting this performance live!

In spite of the fact that the current extraordinary situation prevents us all from meeting at Müpa Budapest in person, we would still like to make the coming days nicer and more uplifting. This is why we are going to transmit our live performance, without an audience, on our website and YouTube channel.

We look forward to welcoming you to the event, through your screen!

The performance will be broadcasted on our website and YouTube channel.


The closing event in the Kurtág 95 birthday concert series offers the audience a look at 15 short films created by the composer's granddaughter, video designer Judit Kurtág. Most of them are made up of previously unreleased private footage of György and Márta Kurtag in their most personal creative environment. These film scenes at the concert link together the musical miniatures being played from the series Signs, Games and Messages. The performers taking the stage are musicians who have collaborated with the Kurtágs for many decades.
The selection of videos assembled by photographer, fine artist and filmmaker Judit Kurtág will segment the concert with brief film clips that will fascinate viewers not only with their look into their subjects' personalities, but also through the way that they show the couple from a perspective that is inaccessible to the outside world: how the music is composed, how they discuss the completed passages, and their life at home together executing pieces for four hands at the keyboard, reciting poetry and playing around with each other, not to mention the silent scene, shot from outside a window, of them tapping out on the glass pane the piano piece that could be considered the motto of the Kurtág oeuvre: Flowers We Are, Frail Flowers. As far as the music being presented between the videos goes, the pieces - with two exceptions - are Kurtág miniatures that either are being performed by an artist personally linked to the Kurtágs or convey deep layers of personal meaning to them. The selection embraces practically the entire oeuvre, with a programme that incorporates a composition written in the early 1970s (Splinters) just as it does a completely fresh one from November 2020 (Márta's Ligature). A good portion of the movements to be played come from the Games series.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest, Budapest Music Center

Conductor:

Gergely Vajda

Featuring:

alto Judit Rajk
clarinet Csaba Klenyán
bassoon György Lakatos
cimbalom Miklós Lukács, András Szalai
electric guitar Sándor Bori
piano Gábor Csalog
András Kemenes
Domonkos Váray
UMZE Ensemble
cello Tamás Zétényi

Creators:

Films by Judit Kurtág
Editors Gergely Fazekas, Attila Kékesi
Film editor Levente Pap
General contact information
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