My post today deals with a new recording of György Kurtág’s Complete String Quartets. Specifically, we get to listen to the following:
Kurtág:
String Quartet, Op 1
Hommage a Mihaly Andras (12 Microludes for string quartet)
Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánsky, Op. 28
Aus der Ferne III
Aus der Ferne V for string quartet
Hommage a Jacob Obrecht
Moments musicaux (6), Op. 44 for string quartet
Arioso Adagio
All performed by the Quatuor Molinari
The 90-year old Hungarian composer György Kurtág has recently devoted his efforts almost exclusively to composing chamber music. The Molinari Quartet presents the composer’s complete string quartets on this new recording.
Strongly influenced by the Vienna school (Webern and Schoenberg), and by Pierre Boulez’s Domaine musical concerts, Kurtág wrote his first string quartet in 1959, and with it launched his career as a composer. It was followed by a series of works referencing composers, performers, and friends he admired.
Olga Ranzenhofer, first violinist with the Molinari Quartet says, “Kurtág’s music is always very personal, immediately recognizable, and stamped with characteristic depth and expression.”
Here is ‘Hommage a Mihaly Andras’, as performed on this new recording:
