Ravinia 2019, Issue 7, Week 13

His encounters with the music of Olivier Mes- siaen, Darius Milhaud, and Anton Webern, as well as the plays of Samuel Beckett, led to an aes- thetic reassessment, particularly in relation to the use of modernist dissonance and fragmen- tation in conjunction with historical materials. After returning to Hungary, Kurtág served as répetiteur at the Béla Bartók Music High School (1958–63) and at the Hungarian National Philhar- monic Orchestra (1960–80). In 1968, he joined the faculty at the Franz Liszt Academy, official- ly retiring in 1986 but continuing to teach until 1993. Kurtág and his pianist wife Márta left Hun- gary that year, living abroad for more than two decades, beginning with one- and two-year resi- dencies in Berlin, Vienna, a second stay in Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris. They moved to Saint-An- dré-de-Cubzac, near Bordeaux, in 2001—Kurtág accepted joint French citizenship the following year—and remained there until 2015, when they returned to Budapest. Still active as a composer in his 90s, Kurtág completed his first opera, the one-act Fin de Partie , based on Beckett’s play Endgame , last year. The work premiered at La Scala in Milan on November 15, 2018. Many of Kurtág’s recent compositions reflect de- cades of increasingly reductive musical thought. These miniatures run the gamut from abstract essays in coloration and texture to arrange- ments of music by Johann Sebastian Bach. Signs, Games, and Messages (1989–present) constitutes an evolving collection of miniatures for a variety of instruments and instrumental combinations. Kurtág has dedicated one volume to each instru- mentation—oboe/English horn, clarinet/bass clarinet/contrabass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, double bass, and string trio—with some overlap of movements between volumes. According to his publisher, Editio Musica Budapest, the three elements in the title of this collection bear per- sonal significance to Kurtág: “ Signs ties in with the composer’s period of study in Paris as a young man, when he could not compose, mere- ly put graphic signs on the paper. Games links with his nine-volume series for the piano with that title. Messages conveys the very personal content of these works, in that these short piec- es are meant to be diary entries and missives to musicians and friends important to Kurtág.” ZOLTÁN KODÁLY (1882–1967) Dances of Galánta Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, side drum, triangle, glockenspiel, and strings Kodály returned to childhood memories when composing his tribute to the oldest symphony in his native Hungary. Between 1885 and 1892, he lived in the small market town of Galánta, now situated in the Czech Republic due east of Bratislava (Pozsony). Galánta enjoyed distinc- tion as a center of the verbunkos style of gypsy music. Verbunkos music originated in the 18th century as recruiting dances for the imperial army. Gypsy troops traveled throughout Hun- gary stirring up patriotic fervor with their alter- nating vigorous and slow dances. Although this type of military recruitment ended in the 19th century, the style continued to flourish among the gypsy musicians. One ensemble still lingered in Kodály’s memory after 40 years, as he described (in third person) in the preface to Dances of Galánta . “There ex- isted at that time a gypsy band which has since disappeared. Their music was the first ‘orches- tral sonority’ which came to the ears of the child. The forebears of these gypsies were known more than a hundred years ago. In about 1800, some books of Hungarian dances were published in Vienna, one of which contained music ‘after sev- eral gypsies from Galánta.’ They have preserved the old Hungarian traditions. In order to contin- ue it, the composer took his principal subjects from these ancient editions.” Several authentic gypsy melodies make cameo appearances in the rondo-like Dances of Galán- ta . The lento introduction evokes a rhapsodic atmosphere without reference to folk tunes. A clarinet cadenza guides the piece into the first melancholy gypsy dance, which serves as a re- frain. The flute offers a buoyant, modal melody. Full strings reprise a livelier version of the initial gypsy tune. A graceful oboe tune adds a refresh- ing open-air quality. Following an abbreviated refrain, Kodály introduces a colorful dance with pizzicato basses, timpani, and triangle. Horns interrupt with a sauntering accompaniment to the exuberant wind melody. The music acceler- ates into a toccata-like section. A brief return of the sorrowful refrain bursts into a frantic rush to the double bar. Dances of Galánta was first per- formed on October 23, 1933, at the gala 80th-an- niversary concert of the Philharmonic Society Orchestra of Budapest under Ernő Dohnányi. JOHANNES BRAHMS Selections from Hungarian Dances, WoO 1 (various orchestrations, further arranged by Eric Jacobsen) Scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, percussion, strings, and solo violin Brahms mastered the Hungarian style through his collaborations with violinists Ede Reményi (Eduard Hoffmann) and Joseph Joachim, both Austro-Hungarian musicians who played with gypsy flamboyance. While on recital tours with Joachim, Brahms transcribed the irregu- lar rhythms and minor-key melodies of pieces played by gypsy violinists or Joachim himself. (When Brahms earned a small fortune from these Hungarian Dances, Joachim accused him of stealing the tunes!) His folk music research later uncovered Zoltán Nagy’s collection of Hun- garian melodies with piano accompaniment. Four books of Hungarian Dances for four- hands piano represent the fruits of Brahms’s ethnomusicological labors. These 24 pieces di- vine their spirit from the csárdás, a lively, rustic Hungarian dance. Brahms published the first two volumes in 1869. With piano-duo partner Clara Schumann, he presented these dances on November 1, 1868, before a private audience in Oldenburg. The third and fourth books ap- peared in 1880. Individual Hungarian Dances have been ar- ranged for assorted instrumental forces. Brahms orchestrated three dances in 1869 and three years later reworked the first 10 dances for solo pia- no. Theodor Kirchner completed the two-hand transcriptions—books three and four—in 1881. Joseph Joachim made arrangements for violin and piano. Numerous other transformations of the Hungarian Dances included versions for cello and piano (Alfredo Piatti), organ (Edwin H. Lemare), and orchestra (Antonín Dvořák, Andréas Hallén, Paul Juon, Albert Parlow, and Martin Schmeling), occasionally transposed to another key. –Program notes © 2019 Todd E. Sullivan György Kurtág Zoltán Kodály RAVINIA MAGAZINE | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 2, 2019 92