György Kurtág, a Hungarian composer, turned 90 years old in February. To celebrate, the city of Budapest held week-long events and concerts in his honor. Though not born in Hungary, Kurtág has a strong commitment to the country, having moved there in 1944 and choosing to remain while others like Ligeti left. He is considered an icon who has nurtured an uncompromising musical tradition through his minimalist style that deeply explores Hungary's cultural influences. The extensive celebrations in Budapest for his 90th birthday were felt to be justified given his significance.

1. 66 classicalmusicmagazine.org april 2016
KURTÁG AT 90
A
dmit it: how many of you thought
György Kurtág was dead? I mean
the greatest of respect and cast no
aspersions upon the composer’s health or
productivity. What I mean is that Kurtág
enjoys a status rarely enjoyed by living com-
posers these days. Anyone should hesitate
before using the word ‘iconic’, and so shall
I. But Kurtág comes close to warranting its
use. He is one of the last personifications
of a great and uncompromising tradition
nurtured by towering figures who occupy
our concert schedules still.
Budapest went all-out to celebrate
Kurtág’s 90th birthday across a whole week
in February, to an extent that might have
taken some foreigners by surprise (it did
me). But straining to find some perspective
after the event – attempting to place this
much-discussed artist in some sort of con-
text – perhaps the volume and solemnity of
the jamboree, with the benefit of hindsight,
feels justified.
All the more extraordinary is that Kurtág
was neither born in Hungary nor lives there
now. But his commitment to the country
stands in stark contrast to some of his com-
patriots and eastern bloc counterparts. In
1958 the composer moved back to Budapest,
the city he had moved to in 1944 aged 18,
while everyone else (Solti, Ligeti) was going
in the opposite direction. Kurtág, so the
narrative goes, returned to marinate his
musical voice in his adopted nation’s distinc-
tive culture. While Ligeti delivered a string
of international hits, Kurtág mined deeper
and deeper into Hungary’s sonic soil and
garnered respect from a slightly different
circle.
Put another way, Kurtág did ‘not clean his
shoes’. That was the phrase chosen by János
Bali, a close friend of the composer who
spoke from the platform before a private
reception on 18 February, the eve of the
composer’s birthday, at the Budapest Music
Centre. The words ‘private’ and ‘reception’
belied an organised hour of performance in
the venue’s concert hall attended by some
200 people, including perfect strangers like
Kurtág’s weekBudapest put on a quite a party for György Kurtág as he turned 90 in February.
Andrew Mellor was there
The thinner the texture,
the more it holds
One of the great personifications of a great and uncompromising tradition: György Kurtág
©allphotosbyJuditMarjai
CM0416_066-067_F_Kurtág.indd 66 15/03/2016 17:10:45