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New recordings of works by Farkas and Kurtág

New recordings of works by Farkas and Kurtág

Recent months’ releases include selections of solo and chamber works by Ferenc Farkas and his former student, György Kurtág, published by UMP Editio Musica Budapest, performed by excellent musicians.

RecordingToccata Classics have already released nearly a dozen of CDs of Ferenc Farkas' compositions. In December 2020, a second album of chamber works using the cello was released in the interpretation of Miklós Perényi and his fellow musicians. The selection, which spans sixty years between 1930 and 1990, gives a comprehensive picture of Farkas' chamber music, from the neoclassical works of his youth to his mature, refined music.

György Kurtág's collections of solos and chamber music, entitled Signs, Games and Messages, written for various string and wind instruments, have by now become popular repertoire pieces by excellent musicians around the world. Tabea Zimmerman’s album Solo II, released by Myrios Classics, juxtaposes Bach and Kurtág as it frequently happened at the Kurtág couple’s concerts. This recording, released in October 2020, which also include the Kurtág miniature …eine Blume für Tabea…, dedicated to Zimmermann, has been chosen as the best chamber music release in the Quarterly Choice of German Recording Critics.

Xelo Giner’s CD De profundis was released in March 2021 by Naxos. The saxophonist, living in France, has transcribed seven of Kurtág’s pieces for oboe and English horn to her own instrument with the consent of the composer, and these compositions obtained an extraordinary new timbre on this instrument. The artist, who collaborated intensively with Kurtág, confirms in these recordings what the composer said about her: "The music is clearly manifested in her personality and charged with overwhelming energy."

Listen to excerpts