Search - Gyorgy Kurtag, Johann Sebastian Bach, György Kurtág :: Kurtag: Jatekok / Marta and Gyorgy Kurtag

Jatekok transcend being just sketches.imbued with something

Peter Heddon | 07/09/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Kurtag has a very precise sense of what he hears but is often at a loss to find an effective means of notation (the Jatekok pieces with their flimsy notation are a good example)and then has fierce confrontions with players when they don't realise his intentions.

For all this shoddy behaviour, the results aren't without an appeal,somehow transcending (only just)being a mere sketch.Most moving are the Bach transcriptions which are beautifully delivered by the fearsome duo of kurtag with his wife.They emerge seamlessley from the Jatekok."

Játékok (Games): A Well Named Collection

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 09/22/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"György Kurtág keeps us guessing and entertained with his ingenious thoughts about music in our time. This marvelous CD is devoted to his piano music and both the composer and his wife Marta Kurtág perform these very brief encounters with sound in a manner in which they are aptly called 'Games'. Among the sequences are brief homages to Stravinsky, Scarlatti, Ligeti, Farkas Ferenc as well as moments of variations on Bach chorales. The placement of these pieces is well conceived: there are I believe 8 books of these 'Games' and in some ways they are similar to Béla Bartók's 'Mikrokosmos', except instead of leading the pianist (and listener) through pieces requiring progressive virtuosity, they instead must lead the player's ear through more and more advanced manipulation of sounds and silences.



Some of the pieces are a matter of a few notes, others hammer the keyboard in percussive strokes, some pieces are homages to Marta and are played by the dedicatee alone. Just when the listener thinks there can not more creativity available from Kurtág he and his wife break into another immaculate transcription of Bach to let the palette settle. This is a satisfying program in every way. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, September 10"