On 16 February, Ensemble intercontemporain premiered Máté Bella’s Hesperus for viola and chamber ensemble at Radio France's Présence Festival. The composition was commissioned by EIC, soloist was Odile Auboin, the concert was conducted by Dylan Corlay.

The model for the Wolf-temperiertes Klavier, as the title might suggest, is Johann Sebastian Bach’s keyboard cycle Das Wohltemperirte Clavier. In line with this, Péter Wolf’s collection of 24 piano pieces uses each of the twelve notes of the octave from C to B as home keys (both major and minor) for the movements. It differs from the Bach work in having no fugues, only freely composed praeludia, or as Chopin would have called them, preludes. Péter Wolf is more strongly linked to Chopin and the Romantic and twentieth-century prelude tradition he engendered than directly to Bach, insofar as etude-like virtuoso movements are interspersed with meditative, sentimental pieces in a series that takes us through the world of 24 keys, and the piano technique required is closer to the age of Romanticism than to the Baroque.

Universal Music Publishing Editio Musica Budapest is proud to announce the release of the extended and revised edition of Zoltán Kodály: Choral Works for Mixed Voices.

Seventy-five years after their first release, the time has come for Kodály’s collected choral works for mixed voices to appear in a completely new, expanded edition. This collection contains six compositions that were not included in earlier editions. It is printed in a slightly larger format than previous editions and is available in a hardcover version as well as a softcover version for practical purposes. We whole-heartedly recommend the canvas-bound edition to libraries, collectors, and Kodály enthusiasts alike.

Leigh Melrose (Clov) and Frode Olsen (Hamm). Photo: Ruth Walz

On November 15, Teatro alla Scala premiered György Kurtág’s opera Samuel Beckett: Fin de partie, scènes et monologues. In the long-awaited opera Kurtág set Beckett’s drama, which he had seen as a theater performance in 1957 in Paris. The textbook was compiled by the composer, using about half of the playwright’s play, strictly following the process of the drama.

The cast of the world premiere included Frode Olsen (Hamm), Leigh Melrose (Clov), Hilary Summers (Nell) and Leonardo Cortellazzi (Nagg); the orchestra of La Scala was conducted by Markus Stenz, the performance was directed by Pierre Audi.

The performance was created as a joint production with the Dutch National Opera, and further performances will be shown in Amsterdam on March 6, 8, and 10, 2019.

This year, the 27th Milano Musica Festival – connected to Kurtág’s opera Samuel Beckett: Fin de partie, to be presented at La Scala on November 15th – focuses on the oeuvre of György Kurtág. From October 21st to November 26th, 22 concerts provide an overview of the composer's work: instrumental and vocal pieces, chamber and orchestral music. The festival presents Kurtág's conversations with his forerunners and contemporaries (Bach, Schubert, Bartók, Stravinsky, Ligeti) and the emergence of important topics of modernity in his art. In connection with the opera, special attention is paid to the works related to Beckett's writings, such as What is the Word or Pascal Dusapin’s Watt for trombone and orchestra.

Three compositions by Gergely Vajda, Clarinet Symphony for two clarinets and orchestra, Alice Études for clarinet and string quartet, and Persistent Dreams for solo clarinet, have been recorded on a new CD, released by the Budapest Music Center Records. This offered the occasion to ask Gergely Vajda about his versatility.

 Clarinettist, composer, conductor – you have all these in your biography. Which is your priority order of these three “c”-s?

I don’t want to offend conductors or instrumentalists but I think creating something from nothing is probably the “king” of all activities, that’s how you can get closest to “Creation” as a human being.

Alessio Elia was called "the rising star of a new generation” by Elena Abbado. Besides his Italian home country, Elia studied in Germany, Norway and Hungary. He has been supporting his composing activity with scientific research, which is related to different tuning systems that he labels as "polysystemism".

The piano series entitled Games, written from 1973 onwards, was conceived originally as a piano method. Its early volumes introduced children to the basic elements in piano-playing and musical thinking, and, more importantly still, taught them to play music without inhibitions. As the years went by, the view of the series lost its didactic character. It came to be seen as a document from Kurtág’s workshop, offering a key to his grander symphonic, chamber and vocal works as well.

Gergely Vajda composer, conductor has been awarded the prestigious Bartók-Pásztory Prize of 2018, donated by the Budapest Music Academy. Gergely Vajda's quintet for clarinet and strings, Alice études, inspired by Lewis Carroll's books, has recently appeared in our catalogue. Two stage works of the composer will be performed in the following months: his opera Barbie Blue will have a concert performance on June 5 in Budapest, and his puppet opera The Giant Baby will be premiered at the Armel Festival on 3 July in Vienna and then, on 7 July in Budapest.

György Kurtág has barely written instrumental works for chamber ensemble, a formation otherwise favored by contemporary composers. Hence, the arrangements of the Swiss composer-conductor Olivier Cuendet from Kurtág’s emblematic collection for piano, Games, represent a significant enrichment of the repertoire. The sequence of 34 pieces can be performed consecutively as an inherent cycle or in different combinations.