Kurtagiana (Budapest)
Program
Robert Schumann: Kreisleriana – IV. Sehr langsam, V. Sehr bewegt (arranged by Csaba Ajtony)
György Kurtág – Johann Sebastian Bach: Actus Tragicus BWV 106
Máté Balogh: BABEuropaL
György Kurtág: Bref messages
György Kurtág: Hommage à R. Sch.
Marco Stroppa: élet… fogytiglan – imaginary dialogue between a poet and a philosopher
Judit Varga: Zankend – Stille, stumm, still. Hommage to Márta Kurtág
Nina Šenk: Baca II
Ivan Buffa: Earthpulse
Featuring
MIKAMO Central European Chamber Orchestra
Conductor: Ajtony Csaba
Contemporary music is rarely only contemporary. Composers are connected in countless ways—consciously and instinctively, directly or indirectly—to music of earlier and more recent periods. These musical connections are especially significant in the oeuvre of György Kurtág: through the multifaceted and deliberate use of references, homages, and historical reflection, the creative process traverses a wide spectrum of music history.
Kurtágiána joins the series celebrating the 100th birthday of György Kurtág with a special experience that presents the Master’s oeuvre as a living, continuously evolving dialogue. At the evening of the MIKAMO Central European Chamber Orchestra, Kurtág’s music is heard in the context of historical references and contemporary reflections: starting from works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Robert Schumann, compositions by several generations of composers enter into dialogue with one another.
The first part of the concert takes place in various spaces of the Hungarian House of Music. Here, aphoristically shaped pieces by J. S. Bach, Schumann, and Máté Balogh prepare the listener for the later, larger-scale works. The first part converges in the foyer with the first movement of Kurtág’s Bref messages, which serves as a nodal point, bringing together the previously separate musical experiences.
After the intermission, the evening continues in the Concert Hall. Here, movements II–IV of Kurtág’s Bref messages unfold in a more concentrated listening situation, yet still within an unconventional concert format, followed by Hommage à R. Sch., which condenses Kurtág’s personal and musical relationship to Schumann into aphoristic form.
In the second half of the program, the broader projection of the Kurtág universe is outlined through works by contemporary composers. Marco Stroppa’s élet… fogytiglan is inspired by texts by János Pilinszky; Judit Varga’s Zankend – Stille, stumm, still. pays tribute to Márta Kurtág; while Nina Šenk’s Baca II reflects Kurtágian thinking in its handling of material and structural approach, while at the same time counterbalancing its character. The evening concludes with Earthpulse, a new composition written by Ivan Buffa in homage to György Kurtág.
Kurtágiána continues MIKAMO’s long-term, discursive concert approach. The concert invites the audience to hear Kurtág’s music as a process in motion—both spatially and temporally—where the traditions of the past, the creative reflections of the present, and the personal paths of listening are closely intertwined.