Name: György Ligeti
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György Ligeti

Deep insights

Cosmos Ligeti: The new documentary film about György Ligeti was broadcast for the first time in May 2023 by the television channels arte and ORF 2 and is still available online.

Family members, companions and interpreters of György Ligeti's music have their say in Herbert Eisenschenk's new documentary, tracing the life and history of an uncompromising artist. They include pianist Dominic Harlan and his father Jan Harlan, brother-in-law of Stanley Kubrick, who tell how Ligeti's music found its way into the director's films. Organist Franz Danksagmüller demonstrates the unusual sounds that Ligeti's composition elicits from the organ. Tabea Zimmermann tells of the musical and technical challenges of the viola sonata dedicated to her. The recently deceased Friedrich Cerha, contemporary of Ligeti, recalls common stations.

The documentary is available online in the arte media library.

Aural traces in Siena

Under the motto Tracce (Traces), the summer festival of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana will dedicate an extensive focus to György Ligeti's music in July and August 2024.

LIGETI 100

"A restless seeker with great independence and inventiveness"

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

LIGETI 100

The multifaceted exhibition Ligeti Labyrinth, which was conceived by the Budapest Institute of Musicology and the Paul Sacher Foundation, was presented at the Basel Historical Museum until April 2024.

New publication

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

Birthday Music

On 28 May 2023, the 100th anniversary of György Ligeti's birth, the composer's music was heard in concert halls all over the world - in cities with which his life was closely linked, such as Budapest, Vienna, and Hamburg, as well as in faraway places like Tokyo and Mexico City.

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.

Vienna celebrates György Ligeti's music

The Wiener Konzerthaus dedicated an extensive concert series to its honorary member György Ligeti on the occasion of his 100th birthday in 2023.

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.