Litle has ever been seen or heard in music circles of Vera Ligeti, who was twice married to the major modernist György Ligeti.
They wed in Budsapest in 1952, when she was 22 and he 29. The divorced two years later, only to reunite in 1957 after fleeing to the West. They remained together for 52 years until Ligeti’s death in 2006.
Vera, who qualified as a psychoanalyst in Vienna, is still seeing patients at the age of 94. In a rare interview, she says:
‘I have listened all my life, it is really something I have practiced and is not an achievement…’
On the present world situation: ‘The real problem of people is stupidity. You really have to say it like this: people are hopelessly stupid. And I’m no exception. In the best case scenario, there are brighter spots in the brain. But we are often so stupid on essential issues that it’s almost amusing. We humans are masters at making our fate even more difficult…Because there is so much aggression in us and so little opportunity to act it out.’
On domestic life: ‘I always had my own work and our child, and I could do what I wanted. Most of all, I enjoyed the time with my husband; the conversations with him were really the highlights of my life and a great joy. It was simply never boring with him.’
More here.
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