CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Music Of Kurtág And Ligeti

Zankel Hall
Saturday, January 31st, 2009 at 7:30 PM

Please be aware, that tonight’s Pre-Concert Talk in Zankel Hall has been cancelled due to an unavoidable last minute scheduling conflict. Doors to the Hall will still open at 6 PM and the bars will be open. The performance will begin at 7:30 PM.

UMZE Ensemble
Peter Eötvös, Conductor
Amadinda Percussion Group
Natalia Zagorinskaya, Soprano
Katalin Károlyi, Mezzo-Soprano
Ildikó Vékony, Cimbalom
Miklós Perényi, Cello

GYÖRGY KURTÁG Messages of the Late R.V. Troussova, Op. 17
GYÖRGY KURTÁG Splinters, Op. 6c
GYÖRGY KURTÁG Four Poems by Anna Akhmatova, Op. 41(World Premiere)
LIGETI Melodien
LIGETI Cello Concerto
LIGETI Sippal, dobbal, nádihegedűvel ("With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles")

Celebrating Hungary is sponsored by Erste Group.

Program Notes:

GYÖRGY KURTÁG (b. 1926)
Messages of the Late R. V. Troussova, Op. 17

This Pierrot-Lunaire-like set of connected—but somehow distant—settings of poems by Rimma Dalos for soprano and chamber ensemble is a fractured tale of a love affair gone wrong, split into 21 songs, or “messages,” the longest of which clocks in at around three minutes. Hungary was occupied by Russia for a long time, and it us under this strain that the piece was composed. “To be an artist in those conditions,” writes critic John Keillor, “can be unhealthy, and a vigorous discretion haunts the sensibilities of those who are courageous and have a talent worth preserving. It can also impart a sadness that is heightened by a clarity, which comes with the loss of the illusions erected by implicit safety, comfort, and easy access to consumer goods. Messages of the Late Miss R. V. Troussova displays what can happen to persecuted or denied people, in an extended diminuendo.”

Splinters, Op. 6c
Splinters is scored for the traditional Hungarian instrument the cimbalom, which is similar to a hammered dulcimer but more often used in a concert—as opposed to a folk—setting. “In the generation of post–World War II Hungarian composers,” writes composer Zoltán Farkas, “György Kurtág was the first to rediscover the cimbalom. His choice was obviously no longer motivated by the national character of the instrument, but by musical considerations such as its sound, rich in overtones, the wide range of techniques, and the direct contact between performer and musical instrument, as well as the traditional character of the cimbalom and a certain lack of restraint associated with it.

“The title,” continues Farkas, “refers to a volume of poems by János Pilinszky. Similarly to Pilinszky's poems, Kurtág's four movements are exceptionally compact and aphoristic; every gesture condenses musical thoughts that fill an entire formal section. The pronounced rhythm and forceful motifs of the first movement (Molto agitato) address the audience in the “imperative.” The second movement searches for the gravitational center of sounds through a process based on the opposition of minor and major seconds. The dynamic third movement (Vivo) exploits to the utmost the many tone-shades of the cimbalom and the innumerable ways of playing the instrument. The closing movement of Kurtág’s cycle commemorates Stefan Romascanu, a good friend from his student days. The motif evolving from the rustle-like repetitions of notes separates the fragments of a highly stylized but still clearly recognizable folk-music-like melody. Kurtág here evokes the mood of instrumental folk lamentation, and imitates popular violin-playing. The work ends on a highly poetic note, with the comments of the accompaniment constantly throwing new light on the deepest d note that is repeated for a long time before it finally dies away.”

Songs to Poems by Anna Akhmatova, Op. 41


GYÖRGY LIGETI (1923–2006)
Melodien

Cast in a single movement, this orchestral work from 1971 is heavy on the high-pitched percussion (celesta, glockenspiel, crotales). The work is vintage Ligeti, employing his “blurred transitions,” a sound world in which things pass one to the other with a graceful crossfade. This is music one might over generalize as “atmospheric,” but this misses its inherent drama. Ligeti, as evidenced by the title, was composing in a more melodic way, which seemed, to many in the high-modernist camp, anathema. Though in these capable hands, this is not so much a resurrection of melody as a vivisection, an examination not of a melody but of the idea of melody, then considered by many to be dead.

Cello Concerto
This two-movement work from 1966 shows Ligeti beginning to break ties with his 12-tone, high modernist roots, and explores a rich melodic tapestry. The composer eschews the typical concerto drama of competition between soloist and orchestra, opting instead for a melding of forces above long, languorous lines. The opening says it all, with its single held tone for the soloist around which timbres enter, shift, and exit, creating a kind of musical swirl over a solid, consistent drone. This is the very notion Ligeti develops throughout, almost as if to ask, “what happens to a single tone that is held too long?” In its lack of conventional drama of contrasts, the piece relishes in its own internal and intimate—and at times terrifying—emotional drama.

—Daniel Felsenfeld
© 2009 by The Carnegie Hall Corporation


Sippal, dobbal nadihegeduvel (With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles)
Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedûvel (With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles), composed in 2000, is a cycle of seven Hungarian songs for low mezzo-soprano and four percussionists, whose diverse instrumentarium includes non-percussive instruments such as slide whistles and chromatic harmonicas. As so often in my life, I have put to music poems of the great twentieth-century Hungarian poet Sándoe Weöres. He was a unique virtuoso of the Hungarian language and his poetic subjects are sometimes trivial or obscene, occasionally sarcastic or humorous, tragic or desperate, and even include artifical myths and legends. Some of his works are large-scale frescoes, which are worlds within themselves. It is, however, to the countless, equally profound and playful short poems that I have always turned for my composition.

In the first song “Fabula” (Fable), a pack of wolves shudder with fear as two mountains approach each other, crushing them without pity in their wake. The text of Táncdal (Dance Song) may sound meaningful, but actually the words are imaginary, having only rhythm and no meaning. In Kínai templom (Chinese Temple) Weöres succeeds in conveying the contentment of the Buddhist view of life by using only monosyllabic Hungarian words. Kuli (Coolie) is a poetic portrayal of an Asian pariah’s monotonous hopelessness and pent-up aggressiveness. In Alma álma (Dream) I have embedded the voice into the sound of four harmonicas, creating a strange, surreal atmosphere. The poem describes how the branches of an apple tree gently sway in the wind and an apple dreams of journeys in distant, enchanted lands. Keserédes (Bitter-sweet) is like a “fake” Hungarian folk song. I sought to express this rift by combining artificial folk music with a pop-like melody and an artificially sweetened accompaniment. Even if the text of Szajkó (Parakeet) does have a meaning, the poem is in effect a nonsensial play on words, but one which produces a rhythmic swing.

The title of this cycle is not from Weöres: it is a line from a Hungarian children’s verse (a kind of counting rhyme), which dates from the time of the Turkish occupation of Hungary.

—György Ligeti
(Translation by Louise Duchesneau)

UMZE Ensemble
UMZE (short for Új Magyar Zene Egyesülete in Hungarian, translated in English “New Hungarian Music Society”) Ensemble gave its debut concert at the 1997 Budapest Autumn Festival.

The parallel between the original New Hungarian Music Society—formed by Bartok, Kodaly and Leo Weiner in 1911—and today’s UMZE ensemble is apparent as they continue their ambition to keep the now classic compositions of the 20th century in the repertoire, and to bring the most recent compositions of both Hungarian and foreign composers to the listener.

The newborn UMZE has become an asset to Hungarian music in the past ten years. Lacking regular funding, the ensemble first operated on an occasional basis using Amadinda’s infrastructure. The UMZE appeared at the most prestigious Hungarian festivals, such as the Budapest Spring and Budapest Autumn, and gave concerts in Berlin, Karlsruhe, Avignon and Zagreb. They took part in the Wiener Festwochen and participated in one of the most important new music forums, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. UMZE also released four CDs, three on the BMC label.

The New Hungarian Music Society’s founding members include many prominent figures of Hungarian music, such as György Ligeti, György Kurtág, András Szőllősy, Péter Eötvös, Zoltán Jeney, Ferenc Rados, László Dobszay, Miklós Perényi ,and Lászlo Vidovszky as president. UMZE’s executive board elected Zoltán Rácz as Artistic Director three years ago, commissioned Laszlo Gőz, Director of Budapest Music Center, as its Managing Director, and Péter Eötvös as honorary Principal Conductor. For a second consecutive year a grant from the cultural ministry enables UMZE Ensemble to take on a regular schedule.

Among the highlights of last season’s concerts are a special tribute concert to American composer Steve Reich, a guest appearance at Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival in Hamburg with an all-Ligeti program, a Louis Andriessen tribute concert, and UMZE’s annual Hommage á Ligeti concert.

Peter Eötvös, Conductor
The music of Peter Eötvös is featured regularly on the programs of orchestras, contemporary music ensembles, and festivals worldwide. As composer-conductor, he has led projects focusing on his work in Paris, London, Berlin, Frankfurt, Vienna, Lucerne, Göteborg, and other art centers. His operas, Le Balcon, Angels in America, and Lady Sarashina followed the lead of his Three Sisters by generating an ever-increasing number of new productions. Eötvös’s most recent opera Love and Other Demons was premiered to great critical acclaim by the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in August 2008.

Peter Eötvös’s conducting activities are characterized by long-term relationships with a number of key orchestras and institutions: the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Ensemble Intercontemporain, and Netherlands Radio. Since 2003 he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and will serve as Principle Guest Conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra starting in the 2009–2010 season.

His Former positions have included the principal guest conductor at the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1985–1988), chief conductor of the Radio Chamber Orchestra of Hilversum (1994– 2005), as well as first guest conductor of the Budapest Festival Orchestra (1992–1995), the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (2003–2005), and the National Philharmonic Orchestra Budapest (1998–2001).

Eötvös is generally regarded as one of the leading interpreters of contemporary music. He performed regularly with the Stockhausen Ensemble between 1968 and 1976, and collaborated with the electronic music studio of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne from 1971 to 1979. In 1978, at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, he conducted the inaugural concert of IRCAM in Paris, and was subsequently named musical director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, a post he held until 1991.

His teaching activities are equally important to him as his composition and performance career, especially his work at the Musikhochschule in Karlsruhe since 1992, and at the International Eötvös Institute and Foundation for young conductors and composers in Budapest, which he founded in 1991.

Peter Eötvös’s works have been recorded by BIS AG, BMC, DGG, ECM, KAIROS, COL LEGNO. His music is published by Editio Musica (Budapest), Ricordi (Munich), Salabert (Paris), and Schott Music (Mainz).

Amadinda Percussion Group
Károly Bojtos
Aurél Holló
Zoltán Rácz
Zoltán Váczi

Considered among the most original and versatile percussion groups, the Amadinda Percussion Group was founded by four percussionists following their graduation from the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest in 1984. Its mission is to introduce Hungarian audiences to percussion music from around the world and inspire composers to write new works for percussion.

In recent years, the Amadinda—whose name refers to a traditional xylophone from Uganda—has been researching the music of traditional percussion cultures. To expand percussion repertoire, the group’s members have composed their own pieces and transcribed outstanding classical works.

The Amadinda Percussion Group has received the Hungarian Composers Award several times and was been honored with the Ferenc Liszt Award. For their exceptional artistic achievements, the ensemble received the prestigious state award of the Republic of Hungary—the Kossuth Award—in 2004.

Among those with whom the Amadinda Percussion Group has collaborated are John Cage, Bruno Canino, Peter Eötvös, Rosemary Hardy, András Keller, Zoltán Kocsis, György Kurtág, György Ligeti, András Schiff, and James Wood. The ensemble’s extensive discography covers the entire spectrum of the prercussion repertoire, and includes the complete works for percussion of John Cage, as well as works by Eötvös and Ligeti.

In high demand as teachers, the Amadina often holds master classes at such institutions as Yale University, The Juilliard School, and at several conservatories in Japan and Germany. The group also appears regularly at music festivals in London, Huddersfield, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Milano, Hong Kong, Sydney, Warsaw, Budapest, and Prague.

The Amadinda Percussion Group will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2009.

Natalia Zagorinskaya, Soprano
A renown interpreter of 20th-century music, Natalia Zagorinskaya sung vocal cycles by Edison Denisov and his Les Pleurs; Stravinsky’s Les Noces; Berg’s Lulu Suite; Castiglioni’s Terzina; Luigi Dallapiccola’s Tre Poemi and Commiato; György Kurtág’s Messages of the Late R. V. Troussova, Scène d'un roman, and Requiem for the Beloved; Elliott Carter’s A Mirror on which to dwell; Jean Barraque’s Chant apres chant; and Pierre Boulez’s Improvisation sur Mallarme I/II with such ensembles as Contrechamps, Nieuw Ensemble in Amsterdam, and Schoenberg Ensemble.

Zagorinskaya was born in Moscow. At the age of 7 she began to study playing the piano at the Central Music School at the Moscow Conservatory. After graduating from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory (as student of Vera Kudriavtseva) she joined the Moscow Helikon Opera company as a principal and since then has performed in most of major productions.

With the Helikon she has toured the US, England, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Spain, and Lebanon (Al Bustan Festival).

Among her opera roles during recent years there are Emilia Marty in the Russian premiere of Janáček’s The Makropoulos Affair, Blanch in the Russian premiere of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites, and the title role in the Helikon’s production of Dvořak’s Rusalka.

Zagorinskaya has appeared at the various concert halls, including Los Angeles Radio Hall, Radio France Hall, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. She has also performed at the Edinburgh Festival, the Helsinki Christmas Festival (Bach’s Mass in B Minor), and repeatedly takes part in the Festival La Batie in Geneva. She has sung with the Düsseldorf Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon.

Zagorinskaya also took part in performances of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 with Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra in a live broadcast in 2004, and at the Victoria Hall in Geneve in 2005. In 2006 she performed Alexander Zemlinsky’s Lyrische symfonie (seven songs from poems by Rabindranath Tagore) at Muziekgebouw (Amsterdam) and Haarlem Philharmonie. In 2008 she performed Franz Schreker’s Songs (Vom ewigen Leben) at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague under Reinbert de Leeuw and Kurtág’s Troussova at the Aldeburgh Festival.

Katalin Károlyi, Mezzo-Soprano
Born in Hungary, Katalin Károlyi studied singing with Noëlle Barker and Julia Hamari. She went on to set up the Studio Versailles Opéra with Rachel Yakar and René Jacobs. Since then she has concentrated Baroque opera, chamber music, and contemporary music.

Károlyi has performed at festivals including Aix-en-Provence, Ravinia Chicago, Ille-de-France and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She also appears with leading opera companies, including the Opéra National de Paris, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Colon, and in concert at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore and Barbican Halls, and the Cité de la Musique, Paris. She has sung under conductors such as Yehudi Menuhin, William Christie, Phillip Herreweghe, Laurence Equilbey, Paul van Nevel, Peter Srottner, Bernard Tétu, Roland Hayrabedian, and David Robertson.

In 2000 György Ligeti composed Sippal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel for Károlyi and the Amadinda Percussion Group, and she has given numerous performances with them, as well as with the London Sinfonietta, Asko Ensemble, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and in venues and festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, NDR Hamburg, Queen Elizabeth Hall London, Royal Albert Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, Schleswig Holstein Festival, Palace of Arts Budapest, and the Cheltenham Music Festival. Her performance with Amadinda was released as part of Teldec’s Ligeti Series.

For William Christie she has sung Il ritorno d’Ulisse Patria at the Opera Comique Paris, Wiener Festwochen, Opera de Lausanne, Opera de Bordeaux, Barbican Centre, Brooklyn Academy of Music and at the Festival d’Aix en Provence, and a double bill of Les arts florissants and La Descente d’Orfée aux enfers with Les Arts Florissants throughout Europe.

Other engagements include Ligeti’s Aventures, Nouvelle aventures at the Lincoln Center New York, Berio Folksongs at the City of London Festival and on tour with the London Sinfonietta, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Barbican Centre, Reich’s Tehillim with RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, Les noces at the Kultur-Ruhr Festival Germany, and concerts with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Schoenberg Ensemble, Musik Fabrik, and National Orchestra of Hungary. Károlyi gives regular concerts throughout Europe with Amadinda Percussion Group and Ictus Ensemble.

Katalin Károlyi has broadcast and recorded with Les Arts Florissants, the Groupe Vocal de France, Le Parlement de Musique and La Chapelle Royale.

Ildikó Vékony, Cimbalom
Ildikó Vékony was born in 1963 and started to play the cimbalom at the age of seven. She graduated from the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music where she was the student of Ferenc Gerencsér. The school of György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados as well as the composers of the New Musical Studio has had a strong impact on her musical thinking.

Vékony has given concerts throughout Europe, was invited to numerous festivals and played the cimbalom with several renowned orchestras (the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne). She has performed at Tonhalle in Zürich, in Berlin, and at the Philharmonie in Munich, among other venues. She has also been guest artist at the Orlando Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Musikfestspiele Saar, and the Salzburg Osterfestspiele.

She has worked with Claudio Abbado, Zoltán Peskó, Péter Eötvös. Her repertory spreads from the music of the 12th century and Bach to contemporary music. She has premiered several works and was honored with the Artisjus (the Society of the Hungarian Bureau for the Protection of Authors’ Rights) award numerous times for her interpretation of contemporary Hungarian compositions. Vékony has also participated in several radio and CD recordings.

Miklós Perényi, Cello