My Weeks With Ligeti | Heteim Ligetivel

“Music should not be normal, it should not be well mannered, it should not wear a neatly tied tie.”

“I have always been fascinated by faulty machines, in general by the world of technology, automatization that gives birth to bureaucracy, and exposes us to different bureaucracies.
/…/ Unruly machines and automata like that have always captured my attention.”

“When an exalted movement is so overly exalted, then you don’t even look at it like exalted any more.

“…there has to be some kind of order, but it should not be too dogmatic. /…/
Like you are entering a room and you can see that every object has its place, they were just slightly displaced by a not so reliable cleaning lady.”

“So in music there are also things that can be and cannot be called a parody at the same time. There is the entrance on Nekrotzar: there is a bass-ostinato all the way through it. It is like the bass melody of the last movement of the Eroica Symphony, it is just in 12 tones. Well, not really a 12 tone melody, there is a mistake, because it only consists 11 pitches. This is parody, but what it develops into is very serious, one could say, majestic music. This is true for the entire opera. I have worked the elements of parody into the tapestry.”

“Looking at fear with a telescope.This might be the most important characteristic – not message – of this music. Then it is not only a mixture of comedy and fear, buffa and seria, but the total concurrence of them. What is serious is also comical, and comical is serious. Now if I look at my own work from very far: this might be it, this might be the truly new in my music, something that did not exist before.”

The quotes above are from an interview book with composer György Ligeti done in 1979 by Péter Várnai. There is something in every one of these quotes that made it into my newest composition. this is my second piece already that was commissioned by the French Ensemble Ars Nova. It is entitled ‘Bagatelles canoniques’ (Canon Bagatelles) and it will be premiered in 2022. I composed the piece as an homage to György Ligeti. In the past 3 weeks, between two Moderna shots, I could finish this 12 minute long piece. Composing it gave me more pleasure than usual. Order, disorder (or to stay true to Ligeti’s art: Clocks and Clouds), determined and free: I wanted to create a balance, and I believe I succeeded. It is too bad that now I have to wait about a year to hear it played by live musicians. Well, indeed, a pandemic situation can bring unexpected gifts, like free time not planned.

„A zene ne legyen normális, ne legyen jólnevelt, ne legyen szépen megkötött nyakkendője.”

„Mindig faszcináltak a rosszul működő gépek, egyáltalán a technikai külvilág, az automatizálás, amely bürokráciát szül, és amely kiszolgáltatja az embert különböző bürokráciáknak.”
/…/ Az effajta makrancos gépezetek és automaták mindig nagyon lekötöttek.

„Ha egy patetikus mozdulat annyira patetikus, akkor már nem is tartod patetikusnak.”

„…valamilyen rendnek kell lennie, de a rend ne legyen túlságos, ne legyen dogmatikus. /…/
Mintha belépve egy szobába, látnám, hogy minden tárgynak meglenne a saját helye, de egy nem egészen megbízható takarítónő kicsit arrébb tolta a tárgyakat.”

„Tehát a zenében is vannak olyan dolgok, amiket lehet is paródiának nevezni, meg nem is. Itt van Nekrotzar bevonulása: végighúzódik rajta basszus-ostinatóként az Eroica utolsó tételének basszus-dallama, de Zwölftonban. Nem egészen Zwölfton, hibás, mert a sor csak tizenegy hangból áll. Ez persze paródia, de ami kialakul belőle, az nagyon is komoly, mondhatnám, méltóságteljes zene, s ez az egész operára vonatkozik. A paródiaelemeket is beledolgoztam a szőnyegbe.”

„A félelmet fordított gukkerrel nézni. Ez talán egy lényeges jellemvonása – nem üzenete – ennek a zenének. Aztán a komikumnak és a félelemnek, a buffának és a seriának nem csak keveredése, hanem teljes egybeesése. A komoly egyben komikus és a komikus egyben félelmetes is. Ha most tényleg nagyon messziről nézem eddigi életművemet: talán ez az, ami az én zenémben valóban új, ami ebben a formában eddig még nem volt.”

A fenti idézetek mind Várnai Péter: Beszélgetések Ligeti Györggyel (1979) című könyvéből valók, és mindegyikben van valami, ami valahogy belekerült legújabb darabomba. Az Ars Nova együttes felkérésére már második művemet írom. A ‘Bagatelles canoniques’ (Bagatell-kánonok) 2022 kerül majd bemutatásra, és Ligeti György emlékére íródott. AZ elmúlt 3 hétben, két Moderna vakcina adag között, a végére értem ennek a kb. 12 perces ensemble darabnak, amelynek megkomponálása a megszokottnál is több élvezetett okozott nekem. Rend, rendetlenség (avagy, hogy Ligeti művészeténél maradjunk: Órák és Felhők), kötöttség és szabadság egyensúlyát akartam létrehozni, és azt hiszem sikerült is. Kár, hogy majdnem egy évet kell várjak arra, hogy élő zenészekkel is hallhassam. Na igen, a pandémiás kiszámíthatatlanság egyik jó oldala éppen az, hogy váratlan szabad idők hullanak az ember ölébe.”

Opera-Symphony, Anti-Anti Opera and the missing link

Busy 6 weeks ahead in Budapest, Hungary. I am starting with the final classical subscription concert of the MR Symphony Orchestra (Hungarian Radio Symphony) at Palace of the Arts. The program includes two symphonies numbered 9, one by Shostakovich and one by Beethoven. Two very different “Number Nines” juxtaposed. Now that I am doing Beethoven’s Choral Symphony three times in three months (April: Huntsville, May: Budapest, June: Music in the Mountains, California) I rediscovered the operatic, theatrical side of the final movement of this titanic piece for myself. (BTW I always thought that the Funeral March of Eroica was “music for a play”, just like Egmont) The famous opening lines by the bass-baritone
“O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!”(“Oh friends, not these tones!”)
written in recitativo style set the tone for this very special Rescue Opera called “The Last Movement of Beethoven Nine”.

http://www.mupa.hu

As part of a now decade old tradition the Palace of the Arts remembers the great composer Gyorgy Ligeti on (or around) his Birthday. He would be 90 years old this year. The time has come for Ligeti’s only opera, well his Anti-Anti-Opera as he called it to be performed as part of the Hommage To Ligeti series. I’ll be the conductor of the concert performance of the 1997 Salzburg Version of The Macabre at the helm of the Pannon Philharmonic in cooperation with
Neue Oper Wien
http://www.neueoperwien.at
and Amadinda Percussion Group
http://www.amadinda.com

Here is the summary of the story of this Anti-Anti-Opera
http://www.guardian.co.uk
Link to the Palace of the Arts production
http://www.mupa.hu

Now it seems that I could just move into the Palace of the Arts for the next couple of weeks. (BTW check out the architecture on their website. It is a gorgeous building.) After finishing the Ligeti project I dive into a “Real Opera” at last. As part of the internationally known Budapest Wagner Days I get to conduct Lohengrin semi-staged.
http://www.mupa.hu
The great thing about being a conductor, or a musician in general is that you get to wear many hats. From Beethoven through Ligeti to Wagner: one feels like an actor playing different characters. You are only as good an actor as much you can be yourself in the role you are playing. Studying Lohengrin is giving me great pleasure. Just like I re-discovered the operatic nature of Beethoven 9 for myself I did just make a discovery about Wagner’s romantic “Knight on a Swan” tale. Learning this opera made me realize how organically Wagner’s artistry is rooted in German musical theater tradition. It might sound like a cliche or a no-brainer to many (or to all who knows even a little about W) but it is different knowing something from your studies and actually living it as a musician. NOW I see (and feel) that Lohengrin is the “Missing Link” (along with The Flying Dutchman and Tannhauser of course) or rather the straight path between Weber’s Freischutz and Tristan und Isolde.

Ligeti 90
Wagner 200
Vajda 39 and One Lucky Guy with great pieces to conduct between now and mid June.

The Shostakovich-Beethoven and the Ligeti performances will be streamed live by the Hungarian Public Radio at
http://www.mr3-bartok.hu