Tribute to György Kurtág

There is no other living composer so intimately and profoundly connected to the medium of the piano duo as György Kurtág. His own performances with his wife, Marta, have led to the creation of nearly 100 pieces for piano, four-hands and two pianos. Most of these are either original miniatures or highly imaginative transcriptions of the music of Machaut, Purcell, Frescobaldi, Lasso, Schütz and J.S. Bach. Works of Kurtág from the 1950s to the present can be performed as a single interwoven program, or they can be interspersed with pieces by Ligeti, Eötvös, Bartòk, Sciarrino and others. The Duo continued their commitment to Kurtág’s music with a special commissioning project in 2016: eleven esteemed composers from different countries and generations have contributed new Microludes in the spirit of Kurtág’s Játékok. This new series, for one piano, four-hands, includes composers Peter Eötvös, Roland Moser, Philippe Manoury, Klas Torstensson, Carola Bauckholt, Caspar Johannes Walter, Katharina Rosenberger, Jason Eckardt, Amy Williams, and Marcos Balter.