HOLLIGER; KURTÁG Zwiegespräche
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: György Kurtág, Heinz Holliger
Genre:
Chamber
Label: ECM New Series
Magazine Review Date: 09/2019
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 74
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 481 8265
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Airs |
Heinz Holliger, Composer
Heinz Holliger, Composer |
Lecture |
Heinz Holliger, Composer
Heinz Holliger, Composer |
Berceuse pour M |
Heinz Holliger, Composer
Heinz Holliger, Composer |
Die Ros’ (Angelus Silesius) |
Heinz Holliger, Composer
Heinz Holliger, Composer |
Angelus Silesius |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
Die Ros’ |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
Einen Augenblick lang |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
Ein Brief aus der Ferne an Ursula |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
…für Heinz... |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
Der Glaube (Péter Bornemisza) |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
Hommage à Elliott Carter |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
In Nomine - all'ongherese |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
Kroó György in memoriam |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
Lorand Gaspar |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
Désert |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
Rozsnyai Ilona in memoriam |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
ein Sappho-Fragment |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
Schatten |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
Versetto |
György Kurtág, Composer
György Kurtág, Composer |
Author: Arnold Whittall
That this is an intensely intimate retrospective is clear from the very first item, Kurtág’s gentle, heartfelt tribute to Holliger’s harpist wife Ursula, who died in 2014. Its poignancy is all the greater since it sounds almost like an impersonation of one of Elliott Carter’s late instrumental miniatures – and Carter, who wrote so memorably for both the Holligers, had himself died just a few months before. But Kurtág, like Holliger, owes even more to the astringent yet profoundly lyrical expressiveness of Webern, and this quality often surfaces, sometimes with touches of un-Webernian irony, in works like Kurtág’s Hommage à Elliott Carter and … (Hommage à Tristan), which condenses Wagner’s sublime five-hour portrayal of death and transfiguration into a mere 40 seconds for oboe and bass clarinet. As you might imagine, every note counts!
The two most substantial works by Holliger himself are satisfyingly well contrasted. His 1999 revision of his Sonata for solo oboe (1955-56) remains the work of a phenomenally gifted student, spinning out long lines exuberantly and eloquently to show off the player’s virtuosity of breath control and digital dexterity. But Lecture for oboe and cor anglais (2015-16) is altogether more powerful in execution and original in conception. Based around seven poems by Philippe Jacottet – the poems themselves are heard in readings by the author before each of the musical ‘settings’ – Holliger packs a whole world of refined and inventive poetic play into a sequence of short movements, the longest less than six minutes. These performances, by Holliger and Marie-Lise Schüpbach, are simply astonishing in their fluency and range of colour, and the depiction of a kind of transcendent avian mayhem in the final movement, ‘Oiseaux’, has to be heard, and reheard, to be believed.
For the opposite extreme to Holliger’s six minutes of dazzlingly diverse sound patterns, you can then move on to Kurtág’s six-minute Kroó György in memoriam for contrabass clarinet, in which only a few barely audible, grief-stricken sounds drift past to disturb the silence. Kroó was a respected Hungarian musicologist and Kurtág’s tribute seems like a very personal farewell to an era of extreme delights and horrors, in which music of genuine vision and deep feeling somehow failed to be totally suppressed.
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