15.00–16.00

Launch of Volume 11 of Játékok (Games), "K.M. hangjegy könyvetskéje" (K.M.’s Music Booklet), and the kurtag.hu website
Contributors: Tünde Mózes-Szitha, music historian, director of UMB Editio Musica Budapest, musicologist Gergely Fazekas and László Borbély, pianist

16.00–17.30

Plenary lectures:

Simone Hohmaier (D): A-Z. The alphabet of Kurtág's musical mother tongue between musical history and private cosmos. (With a gentle emphasis on the letter B.)

Paul Griffiths (UK): Kurtág's Lichtenberg

Karol Berger (USA): What is the game that is supposed to end in Endgame?

Participation in the event is free, but prior registration is required. The sheet music and website presentation will be in Hungarian, the plenary lectures will be in English, with simultaneous interpretation provided.

Two new Kurtág scores and a website collecting information about Kurtág's oeuvre will be launched, and a German, a British, and an American musicologist will give a lecture on Kurtág aimed at the general public on the day after his 100th birthday at the BMC Concert Hall.

UMP Editio Musica Budapest, which has published Kurtág's music for more than seventy years, will release the new volume of the Játékok (Games) series – growing since 1973—to mark the anniversary. This volume contains pieces written since 2012 and some newly discovered older piano works. The publisher will also issue a facsimile edition of K. M. hangjegy könyvetskéje ('K. M.'s Music Booklet'). This latter work is perhaps the most personal in Kurtág's output, containing piano pieces intended for or written specifically for Márta from 1973 onward. The scores will be presented by Tünde Mózes-Szitha, music historian, director of Editio Musica Budapest.

Also in preparation for the 100th birthday is the kurtag.hu website and database, which will bring together the most important information about György Kurtág's oeuvre in one place. The website, which includes a list of works, discography, bibliography, interviews, early reviews, biography, and previously unpublished video recordings of Kurtág's pedagogical work, will be presented by musicologist Gergely Fazekas, leader of the professional team developing the site.

The presentation of the scores and the website will be followed by three lectures on Kurtág’s music. Simone Hohmaier, a researcher at the Berlin Institute for Musicology, will highlight the music-historical connections in Kurtág's oeuvre, with particular emphasis on the most significant composers whose names begin with the letter B. British musicologist Paul Griffiths, a renowned expert on 20th-century music, will discuss the relationship between Kurtág and late 18th-century polymath Georg Lichtenberg in connection with Kurtág's new opera, which will be performed that evening at Müpa Budapest. Karol Berger, professor emeritus at Stanford University, will give a lecture on Kurtág's place in music history and his role in today's musical culture in connection with Kurtág's first opera, Endgame.

For the full festival programme and ticket purchases, visit: 100.kurtag.hu