György Kurtág

György Kurtág builds music from brief shards of sound, sometimes glassy and serene, sometimes intense and erotically charged. His small catalogue of works, mostly short and meticulously constructed, represents one of the most distinctive voices of the European avant-garde. Born in Lugoj, Romania to Hungarian parents in 1926, Kurtág began his studies in Budapest and continued in Paris, where his teachers included Messiaen and Milhaud. Most of his music from the ‘70s and ‘80s is for voice or for choir. His works with soprano soloists are particularly striking, including Messages of the Late R. V. Troussova, Op. 17 (1976–1980) and Kafka Fragments, Op. 24 (1985–1986). From the ‘90s, commissions from Western orchestras led to a series of larger-scale but equally intense works. Stele, Op. 33 (1993–1994), a Berlin Philharmonic commission, was his major work of this period. Kurtág performed regularly in piano duets with his wife, Márta, up until her death in 2019. Many of his Játékok series of piano works were written for their partnership. Among his late compositions, the most significant is Fin de partie, an opera based on Samuel Becket’s Endgame, first performed at La Scala, Milan in 2018.