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| György Kurtág and Benjamin Appl during the recording of Lines of Life |
The great Hungarian composer György Kurtág is 99 today.
This week Kurtág’s album, Lines of Life, with baritone Benjamin Appl, and pianists James Baillieu and Pierre Laurent Aimard is released, the centrepiece of which is Kurtág’s Hölderlin Gesänge. In my recent interview with Benjamin Appl, the baritone commented that working with Kurtág on the songs was a highly demanding process.
As he enters his 100th year, Kurtág has released some thoughts on music, singing and the new disc.
Which qualities do you look/listen for in a singer in the performance of your compositions?
“For me, real singing is my late wife Márta’s dark silver voice from her youth and the way she sang. What I teach singers is how Márta was able to express every nuance of the text and melody with her voice. It is not the tradition that is really important to me, but the lyrics of each song and the memories and feelings I have associated with them.”
Benjamin Appl’s new album Lines of Life, on which you are featured as composer and pianist, has just been released. How did the repertoire selection come about?
“Benjamin first came to me for the Hölderlin-Gesänge in 2018, and then we started working on other songs. On this recording you can hear everything that a solo baritone or a baritone and piano can perform. We chose most of Schubert’s songs and the Sonntag by Brahms because of my memories of Márta.”
What role does music play in your life now that you enter your 100th year?
“Music fills my everyday life. I still read literature and everything else that interests me, I also teach, but somehow everything always revolves around music. Since my hearing deteriorated, I have been reading a lot of scores, because now I can only really hear the music, from the inside, by reading it.” Lines of Life
