Name: György Ligeti
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György Ligeti

Vienna celebrates György Ligeti's music

The Wiener Konzerthaus is dedicating an extensive concert series to its honorary member György Ligeti on the occasion of his 100th birthday in the first half of the year.

In 1956, György Ligeti fled to Vienna after the end of the Hungarian National Uprising, and he remained closely connected to the city throughout his life. In the year of his 100th birthday, Vienna will consequently also become a major stage for his works.

At the centre of the musical tribute to his life and work is the Vienna Konzerthaus, of which György Ligeti was an honorary member. In numerous concerts, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, among others, interpret his most important orchestral works. The two string quartets will be performed by Quatuor Ébène and Quatuor Diotima respectively; piano and organ works will be performed by Kit Armstrong, Anton Gerzenberg and Iveta Apkalna. The Klangforum Wien, the Ensemble PHACE and the œsterreichische ensemble fuer neue musik will also participate in the portrait series.

Vienna Konzerthaus

LIGETI 100

"A restless seeker with great independence and inventiveness"

In the summer of 2023, the Salzburg Festival will demonstrate its close affinity with the music of György Ligeti through the concert series Time with Ligeti. Tabea Zimmermann and Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who play a key role in shaping the series, talk about their own relationship with the composer.

Ligeti 100

Orchestras and concert halls around the world are paying tribute to György Ligeti this year on the occasion of his 100th birthday in May
2023. After the start of the Ligeti 100th anniversary year at the Vienna Konzerthaus in January, it was the Berliner Philharmonie that
became the stage for the composer's works with its Biennale in February - an exhibition about Ligeti's life and work is on display until the end of May.

New publication in May

Composers with very different voices emerged from György Ligeti's composition class in Hamburg. For a joint book, many of them have compiled their memories of the teacher and of the musical issues that were negotiated in the class.

LIGETI 100

Concerts in Hungary

At the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where György Ligeti studied after the end of the war, and at the Müpa Budapest, the composer's work wil be celebrated with several concerts. Next in the calendar is an evening with the Budapest Festival Orchestra on March 28.

LIGETI 100

Richly coloured, rhythmically concise, expressively significant

In addition to having recorded all of György Ligeti's works for choir a cappella, the SWR Vokalensemble is offering workshops on the composer's work as part of a major school project and is also touring his music in Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, France and Italy in May and June.

A new work by György Ligeti?

In any case, an almost unheard new version of Macabre Collage was performed independently by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI in February 2023.

Iridescent to unbridled: The Requiem

Hans Memling's Danzig altarpiece of the Last Judgement served György Ligeti as inspiration for the Dies irae from his Requiem, which became one of the most complex polyphonic works in music history. As a summary of his previous work and the nucleus of his new work, the Requiem plays a key role.