Fin de partie - Classic Ross Amico

Today is the 95th birthday of György Kurtág. It is fortunate that he has been so long-lived, since it wasn’t until an age when most people contemplate retirement, in his 60s, that his international reputation really began to take off.

The aphoristic Hungarian master was born on this date in 1929. He forged a lifelong friendship with György Ligeti, while studying at Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy, where he also met the woman who would become his wife. Márta, a pianist, died in 2019 at the age of 92.

Following the Hungarian uprising of 1956, Kurtág spent an extended period in Paris, where he studied with Olivier Messiaen, Darius Milhaud, and Schoenberg pupil Max Deutsch. It was also during this time that he was introduced to the music of Anton Webern and the plays of Samuel Beckett. When Ligeti directed him to a performance of Beckett’s “Endgame,” Kurtág described it as one of the strongest experiences of his life.

He returned to Budapest, where eventually he wound up teaching at his alma mater for 26 years. Gradually, he built a reputation as one of the most respected composers of his time. A meticulous artist, Kurtág’s works are like finely honed miniatures. But these are not pieces for display in the curio cabinet. Rather they are exquisitely crafted microcosms, notable for their poetry and flashes of expressive intensity.

Sadly, the U.S. premiere of his opera, “Fin de partie,” after “Endgame,” which was to have taken place with the New York Philharmonic in June, has been cancelled, thanks to Covid. The work was enthusiastically received following its La Scala debut in 2018. Hopefully it will be rescheduled soon.

For now, a glass of pálinka for György Kurtág on his 95th birthday!

Zoltán Kocsis, Kurtág, and Márta play “Játékok” (“Games”)