From Beyond the Stave (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
Bálint András Varga’s recently published György Kurtág: Three Interviews and Ligeti Homages is a compelling view of the composer at work and his unquenchable thirst for artistic and human impressions. Rather than trying to find a representative piece from the interviews to excerpt, we decided to use one of Kurtág’s pieces on Ligeti : these demonstrate the...
Slipped disc (Free subscription) | 09/18/2009
The composer György Ligeti once said that every note he ever wrote reflected his formative experiences as a teenaged slave labourer under the Hungarian Fracists and German Nazis in 1943-45. Never was this truer than in his only opera Le Grand Macabre,...
JAMES ROE (Free subscription) | 07/15/2009
Guest Turn Last year, the wonderful oboist of Imani Winds , Toyin Spellman-Diaz asked if I could cover her maternity leave this summer. I was thrilled. Imani Winds is the indispensable wind quintet and one of the nation's cultural treasures. On top of that, the members are, to a one, wonderful people and excellent musicians. Often, when I mention my own quintet to someone, the response is, "Oh,...
Opera Today (Free subscription) | 06/26/2009
Le Grand Macabre is the only opera of György Ligéti, one of the major composers of the 20th century.
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