György Ligeti Centennial Celebration: Friday, September 29, 2023
György Ligeti Centennial Celebration
Saint Peter’s Church | 619 Lexington Ave., New York, NY
Friday, September 29, 2023 | 7:30 p.m.
Photo by Co Broerse.
Saint Peter’s Church is pleased to announce its upcoming concert in celebration of the 100th birthday of Hungarian Composer György Ligeti. Join us for an exciting array of performances, co-sponsored by the Liszt Institute New York, including a discussion lead by Martin Bresnick, Professor of Composition at Yale School Music.
A former student of Ligeti, Prof. Bresnick will be our guide in a special tribute to Ligeti’s life and music, accompanied by live performances by international concert pianist and Steinway Artist Lisa Moore. The program includes excerpts from the Musica Ricercata and the Piano Etudes and features two early song cycles performed by Mária Lökösházi (soprano), Viktoria Sarkadi (piano).
The Liszt Institute, the program’s sponsor, is a member of a network of Hungarian cultural institutes around the world. Its mission is to promote transatlantic cultural dialogue and to implement socially and culturally diverse programs and collaborations with Hungarian, American, and European partners.
Spearheaded by Saint Peter’s Cantor and Director of Music Balint Karosi, this program is one of the many celebrations here in New York and worldwide in honor of Ligeti’s centennial. A versatile composer, Ligeti is widely considered one of the most influential avant-garde composers of the 20th century; his compositions impacted the development of 20th-century music, both in classical and popular genres, as well as in film scores.
“Saint Peter’s is a symbol of tradition that has been transformed by progressive thought and art. It is also a beacon for immigrants and a home for people of different cultural backgrounds,” Karosi said. “Ligeti’s music represents Saint Peter’s commitment to classical music, a continuous tradition that continually challenges and comforts us, a music that is rooted in the past, and points to the future.”
Ligeti’s life produced works of true genius, while also holding a tremendous amount of tragedy and relocation. A Hungarian-Austrian Jew, he endured the atrocities of Nazi and Communist Europe. Much of the tragedy of this time is embodied in his compositions and featured in this program – the echoes and nightmares of the composer’s life, marked by his ability to integrate the latest developments of post-war European music and folk songs to compose epoque-defining pieces.
It is Ligeti’s unique love of music that remains at the core, and at the point of departure, for Bresnick’s remarks.
“In my intense personal encounter, and subsequently long relationship with Ligeti, I came to understand better what an immensely imaginative, anti-ideological composer he was, with a voracious, unbounded appetite for what he considered new, beautiful and useful in music,” Bresnick said.
In 1967, Prof. Bresnick was first introduced to Ligeti’s music by his mentor John Chowning as a graduate student at Stanford University. Chowning and Bresnick worked together to bring Ligeti to Stanford, and it was in 1972 that Bresnick completed his doctorate under the supervision of Chowing and Ligeti.
“After Chowning showed me a score of Ligeti’s Atmospheres, I quickly recognized that he had achieved, with a conventional orchestra, much of the sonic detail and control that we at Stanford had been struggling to realize on the very early computers of the late 1960’s,” Bresnick said.
As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Ligeti’s birth, we remember a person whose life embodies the deeply-troubling European history of the 20th century. Ligeti, born in Transylvania, experienced the horrors of World War II, losing his father and brother in the Holocaust. After the War he completed studies at the Liszt Academy in Budapest.
He settled in Vienna after the Soviet Army suppressed the Hungarian Uprising. It would be in Western Europe, in relation to the most important merging centers for new music—Darmstadt, Cologne, and Hamburg—that Ligeti would launch his international career.
This concert marks the beginning of Saint Peter’s 2023-2024 Classical Music Program, ever more significant as the first year of programming featuring the Sanctuary’s rebuilt organ after a devastating flood in 2021. On November 4-5, Saint Peter’s will inaugurate the refurbished organ with a day of community events and performances, including the world premiere of Karosi’s new organ concerto, aptly “In Memoriam György Ligeti.” With new action, five additional stops, and total tonal re-voicing, Saint Peter’s is excited to house a significant instrument for the City, once again capable of a wide range of literature with convincing, stylistic integrity.
The restored Sanctuary organ (Klais, 1977), reimagined and rebuilt by C.B. Fisk Organ Builders in 2023, is also home in a new, improved acoustic environment. The organ’s historic Vignelli-designed case and console have been restored. The Sanctuary’s restoration includes a plaster surface on the Northwest wall designed for acoustic reasons and matched to the surrounding original construction.
Co-sponsored by the Liszt Institute of New York, this promises to be a night of superb musical performance. We look forward to welcoming music lovers back to Saint Peter’s for this centennial celebration of György Ligeti.
Director of Music Bálint Karosi conducts the Saint Peter’s Bach Collegium Period Orchestra and Saint Peter’s Choir for the annual Bach Good Friday Passion, 2023. Courtesy of Saint Peter’s.
Program
Introduction to Ligeti’s life and works by Martin Bresnick, Chair, Composition Department at Yale School of Music.
Három Weöres Dal | Three Songs on poems by Sándor Weöres (1946-47)
1. Táncol a hold | The moon is dancing in a white robe
2. Gyümölcsfürt | A cluster of fruit
3. Kalmár jött nagy madarakkal | A Merchant has come with giant birds
Mária Lökösházi, soprano, Viktória Sarkadi, piano
Öt Arany dal | Five Songs on poems by János Arany (1952)
1. Csalfa sugár | Treacherous Ray of Sunlight
2. A legszebb virág | The Most Beautiful Flower
3. A csendes dalokból | From the Quiet Songs
4. A bujdosó | The Errant
5. Az ördög elvitte a fináncot | The Devil has Taken Away the Taxman
Mária Lökösházi, soprano, Viktória Sarkadi, piano
Poème Symphonique for 100 Métronomes (1962)
Hungarian Rock (1979)
Bálint Karosi, organ
Excerpts from Musica Ricercata (1951-1953)
I. Sostenuto – Misurato – Prestissimo
II. Mesto, rigido e cerimoniale
III. Allegro con spirito
IV. Tempo di valse (poco vivace – « à l'orgue de Barbarie »)
V. Rubato. Lamentoso
VI. Allegro molto capriccioso
VII. Cantabile, molto legato
VIII. Vivace. Energico
Two Etudes from Etudes for Piano (1985-2001)
Étude No. 5: “Arc-en-Ciel"
Étude No. 2 “Cordes à vide“
Étude No. 4 “Fanfares”
Lisa Moore, piano
About The Liszt Institute New York
The Liszt Institute New York aims to connect artists, academics, arts and culture professionals and the public. The 25 Liszt Institutes abroad are overseen by Hungary's Ministry of Culture and Innovation, but enjoy considerable autonomy to promote awareness of Hungarian and Central European culture, often through collaborations - a principle particularly relevant in venues as full of grand productions as New York and the United States.
As the network's only American representation, the Liszt Institute New York seeks to present the past and present of Hungarian arts and society to American audiences, while encouraging professionals and artists in the United States to engage with their Hungarian counterparts. The more the Institute succeeds in promoting transatlantic cultural dialogue, the more it fulfills its core mission.
About the Performers
Martin Bresnick was educated at the University of Hartford, Stanford University, and the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. His principal teachers of composition included György Ligeti, John Chowning, and Gottfried von Einem. Bresnick has taught internationally, including at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, and the Royal Academy of Music in London, among others.
Bresnick's compositions, from opera, chamber, and symphonic music to film scores and computer music, are performed throughout the world by leading symphonies, chamber groups, and festival ensembles. His music has been recorded and released by New Focus Recordings, Tall Poppies Records, Starkland Records, Cantaloupe Music, Composers Recordings, Inc., Centaur Records, New World Records, Artifact Music, and Albany Records, and is published by Carl Fischer Music, Bote & Bock, and CommonMuse Music Publishers.
At Yale, Bresnick teaches a studio of graduate students, and his works are often featured on the New Music New Haven concert series. During the summer, he is Director of the New Music Workshop at the Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.
Lisa Moore is a multifaceted Australian pianist, recording artist, and avid collaborator. The New York Times has singled out her playing for its “life and freshness” and “fragility and tenderness”, The New Yorker describes her as “visionary” and “New York’s queen of the avant-garde piano” while Pitchfork claims “she’s the best kind of contemporary classical musician, one so fearsomely game that she inspires composers to offer her their most wildly unplayable ideas”. Given her passion for the music of our time, Moore won the silver medal in the 1981 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition and has since performed hundreds of new, commissioned works and world premieres. She has worked with more than two hundred living composers, while residing in the vibrant new music scene of New York City since 1985. Moore has released 12 solo albums, ranging from Leoš Janáček to Elena Kats-Chernin. In June 2022, to compelling notice, Moore released her second album of music by Frederic Rzewski – no place to go but around. The New York Times remarked the album is “meticulous, clever, and hits the gas with controlled force” with “a greater range of emotion than other interpreters.” Moore has released over thirty collaborative discs. Her record labels include Cantaloupe Music, Tall Poppies Records, Orange Mountain Music, Irreverence Group Music, Bandcamp, Sony Classical, Nonesuch Records, Deutsche Grammophon, BMG, New World Records, ABC Classics, Albany Records, New Albion, Starkland, and Harmonia Mundi. Moore has performed throughout Europe, the UK, USA, and Asia on many of the world’s great stages, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Sydney Opera House, La Scala, Royal Albert Hall, and the Musikverein. She was the founding pianist (92-08) for the ground-breaking electro-acoustic sextet Bang On A Can All-Stars, winning the 2005 Musical America Ensemble of the Year award. Moore has collaborated with leading artists and ensembles, including Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Ornette Coleman, Thurston Moore, Iva Bittova, Bryce Dessner, Don Byron, London Sinfonietta, Steve Reich Ensemble, New York City Ballet, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Lisa Moore is a Steinway artist. Please visit www.lisamoore.org
Viktória Sarkadi is a Hungarian collaborative pianist. She has earned her bachelor’s and master’s degree in performance at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland(RCS), and upon graduating, she became Collaborative Pianist at The University of Edinburgh’s music department. As a chamber musician, she has performed in venues across Europe and the UK, and is regularly appearing in competitions alongside singers and instrumentalists, as well as in special events, notably, a celebratory concert for Classic FM’s 25th anniversary in the presence of HRH King Charles, and Members of the Parliament's visit to The RCS. She has worked with the charity organization Live Music Now, aiming to bring live music to people of vulnerable groups, including people in hospitals, hospices, care homes. She is passionate about making music accessible outside of traditional spaces. From 2019, she is co-artistic director and chamber music coach of the Allegro Summer School in Hungary, an annual short course introducing the early experiences of chamber music to children aged 9-18. Viktoria is currently in her first year as Collaborative Piano Fellow at Bard Conservatory.
Mária Lökösházi is a hungarian soprano. She graduated from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music with a Masters degree in Oratorio and Song Performance under Prof. Júlia Pászthy in 2021. From 2018 she was awarded an artistic scholarship by the Hungarian Academy of Arts, thanks to she has the opportunity to perform in several recitals and concerts. Her performing art covers all musical periods from early music to contemporary works. She is currently a doctoral student at the Liszt Academy of Music. She has been a finalist and the recipient of a special prize in the Art Song category at the 2022 Triomphe de l'Art International Voice Competition.
Bálint Karosi has been Cantor and Director of Music, Classical, at Saint Peter’s Church in Midtown Manhattan since 2015. After winning the 2008 Bach Prize in Leipzig, Balint has been in demand as a recitalist and clinician worldwide, known for the interpretation of Bach’s music and his Baroque-style improvisations. His recording portfolio includes three albums by Hungaroton, including his original orchestral works, and thirteen albums of the complete works for organ by J. S. Bach. Balint has recently joined the faculty of the Organ Department at the University of Michigan, where he will be teaching organ literature, church music and improvisation, starting August 2023.
Dr. Karosi’s compositions include the reconstruction of Bach’s lost St Mark’s Passion for Saint Peters, four organ concerti, two operas, cantatas, choral, orchestral, and instrumental works. His eight volumes of organ works are published by the Leupold Foundation. His Toccata in Memory of Bartók was the compulsory work for the 2022 NYACOP competition, his Kodály Triptych won the first prize of the Hungarian Philharmonia’s 2022 composition competition, and, in 2023, his organ concerto Syöjätär has been awarded the Kaija Saarijaho prize and the prize of the Finnish National Composer Award in Helsinki, Finland.
Bálint has studied at the Liszt Academy in his native Budapest, Hungary, the Conservatoire Superieure in Geneva, Switzerland, and at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. He earned his DMA in composition at the Yale School of Music in 2017.