Piano - easy
SKU:
HL.50600649
Facsimile with CD.
Composed by Gyorgy
Kurtag. Contemporary
Music. EMB. Classical,
Facsimile, Hungarian.
Softcover with CD.
Composed 2016. 122 pages.
Editio Musica Budapest
#Z15000. Published by
Editio Musica Budapest
(HL.50600649).
ISBN
9790080150009. UPC:
888680895518.
10.25x13.5x0.622 inches.
Hungarian, English.
Gyorgy Kurtag.
In
the autumn of 1974
György Kurtág began
to copy selected pieces
from the series Games
into a music notebook for
Zoltán Kocsis who had
been his student in
earlier years and who,
even today, is one of its
most authentic
performers. Kocsis played
from this notebook in the
first public performance
of Games in 1974. The
gradually expanding
series of piano pieces
also appeared in print in
the course of later
decades; however, since
then he has used this
collection - expanded
over 32 years since by
Kurtág - whenever he
plays pieces from Games
in concert. Since the
time of this 1974
concert, as he writes: 'I
didn't know that the
spiral notebook I
received at the premiere
would later become, as it
were, my permanent
companion. That I would
take it with me from
Japan to Canada, from
Australia to Iceland,
travelling to the world's
most prominent concert
halls, surviving fire
damage, flood, transport
catastrophes, theft
attempts, forced landings
and so on, and that -
well beyond the intention
of its being 'copied with
love' - it would include
works and sketches for
which this notebook would
become the principal
source.' The manuscript
gives a glimpse into
Kurtág's workshop from
the viewpoint of both
performers and
musicologists. The former
can understand more from
Kurtág's handwriting
about the composer's
intentions than from the
printed score. The
musicologists, however,
can study the historical
origins of the works:
some works can be found
here in more than one
version, others appear in
a version different from
the printed score. The
publication is
accompanied by a booklet
and a CD supplement. The
booklet contains Kocsis's
own personal preface, as
well as András
Wilheim's essay providing
information about the
collection and the pieces
contained therein. On the
CD we hear 11 works
performed by Kocsis, from
a recording made in 1982
which has not previously
been commercially
issued.