Frontiers

Kate Molleson explores György Ligeti's formative years with guest contributor pianist Danny Driver. Music includes two early works, Musica ricercata for solo piano and the Romanian Concerto.

Known to millions through the film director Stanley Kubrick's use of his music in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ligeti's music reflects the seismic events taking place in central Europe in the mid-20th century - shifting borders, war, totalitarianism and for many, exile. These harrowing experiences all made a deep imprint on him and his music. He was born in 1923 into a Jewish Hungarian family in an area that had become part of Romanian Transylvania. After years of state repression, in 1956 at the onset of the Hungarian revolution, Ligeti made a dramatic escape on foot to the West. Freed from state intervention, he was to remain artistically and personally independent of any particular orthodoxies for the rest of his life. He died in 2006 at the age of 83.

Ligeti regarded the whole world as the material for his music. He was fascinated by anything and everything: philosophy, science, the arts, literature - Alice in Wonderland was one of his favourite books. His music can be playful, at times wickedly macabre. He loved patterns, he loved rhythm, he dived into mathematical concepts of immense complexity but was equally curious about history, folklore, the cosmos and the natural world. The week includes many of Ligeti's best loved works including the sonata for cello, Apparitions, Lontano, Clocks and Clouds and Melodien. From the piano, Danny Driver, a huge Ligeti enthusiast, opens up the magical universe Ligeti creates in his piano music, with a special focus on the three sets of piano studies.

While music, science, literature and folk music were all part of young György's childhood, when it came to choosing a career, his father believed a career in medicine or chemistry was the right route for his talented son.

Musica ricercata
IV. Tempo de Valse (poco vivace - à l'orgue de Barbarie)
Mei Yi Foo, piano

Lux aeterna
Cappella Amsterdam
Daniel Reuss, conductor

Three Wedding Dances for two pianos (Hàrom lakodalmi tánc)
No. 1, A kapuban a szekér
No. 2, Hopp ide tisztán
No. 3, Csángó forgós
Irina Kataeva, piano
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

Romanian Concerto
I: Andantino
II: Allegro vivace
III: Adagio ma non troppo
IV: Molto vivace
Berlin Philharmonic

Piano Concerto
I: I. Vivace molto ritmico e preciso
II. Lento e deserto
III: Vivace cantabile
Joonas Ahonen, piano
BIT20 Ensemble
Baldur Brönnimann, conductor

Musica ricercata nos 3 to 8
III: Allegro con spirito
IV: Tempo de Valse (po
VI. Allegro molto capriccioso
VII. Cantabile, molto legato
VIII. Vivace. Energico
Mei Yi Foo, piano

Producer: Johannah Smith