The recent issue of Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (2011/2) is devoted to the music of György Kurtág celebrating his 85th birthday with articles and studies by Gösta Neuwirth, Rainer Nonnenmann, Hartmut Lück, Stefan Drees and Philipp Brüllmann.

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To celebrate György Kurtág’s 85th birthday a gala concert was held on February 20th in Budapest, in the Palace of Arts. The concert programme included both chamber music and orchestral works: Four Akhmatova Poems and Messages of the late Miss R. V. Troussova were performed by Natalia Zagorinskaya and the UMZE Ensemble conducted by Péter Eötvös; Grabstein für Stefan, Op.27No.2 (Double Concerto) and Stele were played by the Concerto Budapest Orchestra conducted by András Keller. The soloists in the orchestral works were Elena Casoli (guitar), Gábor Csalog (piano) and Nicolas Altstaedt (cello).

At a press conference on January 20th the results of the first round of the 2011 New Hungarian Music Forum were announced. Eight works ( four chamber and four orchestral pieces) by seven young Hungarian composers (Marcell DARGAY, Balázs HORVÁTH, László SÁNDOR, Péter TORNYAI, Árpád SOLTI, Judit VARGA and Ákos ZARÁNDY) reached the final, which will take the form of a public gala concert to be given on February 8th, 2011 in the Palace of Arts, Budapest. The chamber works will be presented by the UMZE Chamber Ensemble, and the orchestral pieces by the Concerto Budapest Orchestra conducted by Zoltán Rácz and András Keller. There and then the jury will decide on and announce the order of the prizes.

The Article summary