Jatekok

As the Danube flows through the Hungarian capital, Budapest, we sample keyboard works by two of her favorite sons. György Kurtág (b. 1926) was actually born in Romania, but he moved to Budapest as a young man to study at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. Apart from a brief stay in Paris following the 1956 Revolution, Kurtág has never lived outside Budapest; he taught at the Liszt Academy for over 25 years. He has made numerous transcriptions of Bach’s organ works—for both their intrinsic musical interest and their pedagogical value. Moreover, since 1973 he has created volumes of piano teaching pieces called Játékok (Games), work which is still on-going. Kurtág provides a synopsis of what inspired these duets, which he often performs with his wife:

“The idea of composing Játékok was suggested by children playing spontaneously, children for whom the piano still means a toy. They experiment with it, caress it, attack it and run their fingers over it. They pile up seemingly disconnected sounds, and if this happens to arouse their musical instinct they look consciously for some of the harmonies found by chance and keep repeating them . . . Playing is just playing. It requires a great deal of freedom and initiative from the performer.”

(c) Jason Stell