Kim Kashkashian has long been one of the most outstanding protagonists of modern composition and this bold and subtle account of solo music by the great Hungarian composers Kurtag and Ligeti is a landmark recording. Kurtags Signs Games and Messages (1989- in progress) in its nineteen aphoristic sections is as demanding as Ligetis Sonata for viola (1991-94), but Kashkashian surmounts the very different challenges of both works, and points towards the qualities that unite these composers. As ever, she gets to the heart of the music, and unravels its secrets.
György Kurtág (b. 1926) and György Ligeti (1923-2006) were friends, for more than sixty years. “For a long time, a lifetime, Ligeti led me onward,” said Kurtág. “I followed him—sometimes right behind him and other times years or even decades later. I call it my ‘Imitatio Christi’ syndrome. The first years of our friendship were marked not only by his intellectual leadership. I oriented my taste according to his example.”
Grammy Award
