大象传媒

Kate Molleson explores Gy枚rgy Ligeti's process for writing music, and a performer's view of the second set of piano 茅tudes from guest Danny Driver.

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.

Puzzles, paradoxes and illusions provided Ligeti with the inspiration for his piano studies. He was always on the hunt for the new, but this didn't prevent him from returning to the music of his Hungarian roots.

脡tudes: no 8 -Fem (excerpt)
Danny Driver, piano

Three Fantasies after Friedrich H枚lderlin
H盲lfte des Lebens
SWR Vokalensemble,
Tomoko Hemmi,
Yuval Weinberg, conductor

Capriccio 1
Invention
Capriccio 2
Fredrik Ull茅n, piano

脡tudes, Book 2
Galamb borong
Fem
Vertige
Der Zauberlehrling
En suspens
Entrelacs
L'escalier du diable
Coloana infinita
Danny Driver, piano

Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano
I: Andantino con tenerezza
Marie-Luise Neunecker, horn
Saschko Gawriloff, violin
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

Producer: Johannah Smith