Week-long Kurtág 90 festival to start on Sunday

Budapest, February 12 (MTI) – Hungarian and international musicians will pay their respects to composer and pianist György Kurtág to celebrate his 90th birthday at a week-long festival starting on Sunday.

The Kurtág 90 festival organised by the Budapest Music Center (BMC) will be held between February 14 and 21.

Budapest’s Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music will host a grand concert on February 19 featuring Concerto Budapest conducted by András Keller, the Saint Ephraim Male Choir, pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich, cellist Louise Hopkins and György Kurtág Jr on electronics and keyboards.

The programme will include the Hungarian premiere of a Kurtág composition dedicated to Pierre Boulez and a joint composition by Kurtág, his son and Olivier Cuendet performed as a dialogue between a synthesiser and an orchestra. During the evening, a video message from the Berlin Philharmonic will be broadcast, featuring conductor Simon Rattle and trumpet soloist Gábor Tarkövi on behalf of the musicians.

The festival programme also includes a piano concert by Zoltán Kocsis playing works from a manuscript that Kurtág prepared for him over a period of 32 years and the screening of a documentary entitled Kurtág Home Video by director Judit Kurtág, the composer’s granddaughter.

Photo: filharmonia.hu

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters