Composer
Biography:
Gyorgy Kurtag was born on February 19, 1926 in Lugos in the Banat (Romania). From 1940 Kurtág studied piano with Magda Kardos and composition with Max Eisikovits in Temesvár, from 1946 with Pál Kadosa (piano), with Sándor Veress and Ferenc Farkas (composition) and chamber music with Leó Weiner. In 1948 he became a Hungarian citizen; In 1951 he earned his diploma in piano and chamber music; four years later he completed his compositional studies.
1957/58 brought an important turning point in which Kurtág's musical thinking underwent a profound change when he worked in Paris with the Hungarian psychologist Marianne Stein and attended courses with Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud. In 1967 Kurtág was appointed professor for piano and later also for chamber music at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, a position he held until 1986. In 1971 Kurtág received a scholarship from the DAAD in Berlin, and since 1987 he has been a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin.
The "Messages of the late Miss RV Trussowa" op.17 (premièred January 14.01.1981, 1994 in Paris) for soprano and chamber ensemble finally made his name internationally known. In 1998 Kurtág received the Austrian State Prize for European composers, in 2001 the renowned prize from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, in 2006 the Friedrich Hölderlin Prize from the university town of Tübingen, and in 1945 the Grawemeyer Award for Music. Along with György Ligeti, György Kurtág is today considered the most important Hungarian composer after XNUMX.
Albums:
Complete Works for String Quartet:
Messages from the late Miss RV Trussowa / ... gloomy ...:
