Photo above of composer György Kurtág, courtesy of Budapest Music Center, Hungary.
Bard College Conservatory of Music Presents
Signs, Games, and Messages 2026 - Program Five (lecture and concert)
Preconcert Lecture with Gergely Fazekas at 1:30 PM
Kurtág, Mozart, and the Bach Family at 3:00 PM
Kurtág, Mozart, and the Bach Family at 3:00 PM
Sunday, March 29, 2026
Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space
1:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Free and open to the public.1:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
PROGRAM
Preconcert Lecture with Gergely Fazekas
"I compose to seek the truth": The Musical Universe of György Kurtág
Sunday, March 29 at 1:30 pm
Conservatory Performance Space
“The final masterpiece of twentieth-century music.” Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, so described György Kurtág’s first opera, Fin de partie, which premiered in 2018 at La Scala in Milan. What makes Kurtág one of the most important voices in contemporary music in the 21st century, despite his reluctance toward fame and recognition, and despite a career that was restricted for decades behind the Iron Curtain in communist Hungary? How does he think about music, and how does he frame the “truth” he seeks in composing? These are the questions that musicologist Gergely Fazekas, associate professor at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, seeks to answer.
Kurtág, Mozart, and the Bach Family
Sunday, March 29 at 3 pm
Conservatory Performance Space
C. P. E. Bach
Rondo in G Major, Wq. 59, No. 2
András Kemenes, piano
György Kurtág
Three Chorale Preludes for piano four hands
J. S. Bach
Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr, BWV 711
Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 687
Das alte Jahr vergangen ist, BWV 614
András Kemenes, piano
Benjamin Hochman, piano
György Kurtág
Selections from Játékok (Games)
András Kemenes, piano
György Kurtág
Wind Quintet, Op. 2 for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon
Christian Middy, flute
Kai O’Donnell, oboe
Mohammad AbdNikfarjam, clarinet
Dominik Kovács, horn
Adelaide Braunhill, bassoon
INTERMISSION
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Andante with Five Variations for piano four hands, K. 501
András Kemenes, piano
Benjamin Hochman, piano
Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452
Alexandra Knoll, oboe
Noemi Sallai, clarinet
Dominik Kovács, horn
Philip McNaughton, bassoon
Benjamin Hochman, piano
Free and open to the public. Livestreaming on the Conservatory YouTube Channel HERE
Download: Kurtag Program FINAL.pdf
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
Time: 1:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Location: Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space
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