Kurtagiana

Program

Robert Schumann: Kreisleriana – IV. Sehr langsam, V. Sehr bewegt (arranged by Ajtony Csaba )
György Kurtág – Johann Sebastian Bach: Actus Tragicus BWV 106
Máté Balogh: BABEuropeL
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 (world premiere)

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 At the evening of the MIKAMO Central European Chamber Orchestra, Kurtág’s music is heard in the context of historical references and contemporary reflections: starting from works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Robert Schumann, compositions by several generations of composers enter into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 arc of the program is shaped by aphoristic thinking and condensed musical meaning.  Kurtág’s Bref messages plays a central role: serving as a nodal point that connects different musical worlds and modes of thought. Hommage à R. Sch. condenses Kurtág’s personal and musical relationship to Schumann into aphoristic form.

The broader projection of the Kurtág universe emerges through works by contemporary composers. Marco Stroppa’s élet… fogytiglan draws on the spiritual world of János Pilinszky’s poetry; Judit Varga’s Zankend – Stille, stumm, still pays tribute to Márta Kurtág; while Nina Šenk’s Baca II and Máté Balogh’s BABEuropeL reflect Kurtágian thinking in its handling of material and structural approach, while at the same time counterbalancing its character. The evening concludes with Earthpulse, the premiere of a new composition 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.

The concert takes place within the Kurtág100 program series, organized by the Budapest Music Center and the Sonus Foundation, with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport, the Wien MA7, the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Innovation, and the Collegium Hungaricum.