Lockdown Tape #16 shows extracts from György Kurtág’s Signs, Games and Messages. Hannah Weirich talks about her very personal exploration of Kurtág and this cycle.

“I first encountered György Kurtág as a listener at a chamber music course in Fiesole. I will never forget the moment when Kurtág sat down at the piano and played a phrase from Schubert’s G Major Quartet D 887 to the students, a moment as incredibly beautiful as I have only very rarely heard Schubert.

A Musikfabrik project with Márta and György Kurtág ten years ago also remains unforgettable for me: the rehearsal work with him, his insistent, in-depth approach, the eternal searching – an experience that has shaped me and my engagement with music – and finally the performance by Márta and György Kurtág at the Palais Garnier, one of the most moving concert experiences for me ever.

I have been working on Signs, Games and Messages for a long time, over and over again – at the end of February I had telephoned György Kurtág and arranged to visit him in Budapest in mid-July to work with him on this cycle.

It is probably the ironic twist of fate that this re-encounter will probably have to be postponed until an unknown date because of the pandemic.”

Hannah Weirich, June 2020