György Kurtág: Kafka-Fragmente

Featuring

Anna Prohaska
Isabelle Faust
György Kurtág

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Composer Biography

Kurtág dedicated the Kafka-Fragmente to Hungarian art psychologist Marianne Stein, with whom he worked in Paris after the 1956 Hungarian uprising.

Composer's Artistic Vision

The work consists of forty miniatures, ranging from twenty seconds to seven minutes, assembled into four sections that revolve around the motif of 'the pursuit of a path' through life's labyrinth.

Composition History

The Kafka-Fragmente were premiered on April 25, 1987, at the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik by soprano Adrienne Csengery and violinist András Keller.

Compositional Technique

The piece challenges performers to their limits, requiring the soprano to use a full range of vocal techniques from lyrical singing to screaming, and the violinist to produce sounds from smooth cantilenas to scratches and pizzicatos.

Composer Biography

György Kurtág, born in 1926, only gained recognition from the Western European public for his unique aesthetic towards the end of the 1980s.

Composition History

György Kurtág's Kafka-Fragmente for soprano and violin, Op. 24, was composed between July 6, 1985, and March 9, 1987.

Instruments

For some sections, Kurtág requires a second violin to be retuned during the performance using tuning peg glissandos to expand the compass or alter the timbre.