Ligeti100: the music

A concert, in collaboration with the ANU School of Music

 ‘First of all I listen to music. I like music’ –  György Ligeti     

The Hungarian-Austrian composer György Ligeti wrote some of the most striking music of the late 20^th century, made immortal through its connection with film, dance and theatre. If somehow you forgot the haunting music to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, this event will send a timely reminder of how arresting and relevant his music still is. Rooted in the Hungarian folk idioms, his early work walked in the footsteps of Bartók before leaving Hungary behind and exploring new instrumental colours and textures with quasi-cinematic stretches of sound clouds. Over time meticulous clockwork of rhythmic and modal patterns restored a new sense of balance and action.

The Ligeti Piano Etudes have since become a testing ground for modern pianists while his Second String Quartet proudly stands as a beacon of modernism. It takes intrepid performers such as Edward Neeman and the Alma Moodie Quartet to tackle such music. Expect dare-devil virtuosity alongside in-the-moment musical responses from improvisers such as Miroslav Bukovsky and John Mackey.

Bringing the Festival inside the walls of the School of Music, this Ligeti anniversary event features the community of creative musicians fostered by the ANU School of Music.

‘I am in a prison: one wall is the avant-garde, the other wall is the past, and I want to escape.’  György Ligeti from a lecture at the New England Conservatory in 1993

Program

György Sándor Ligeti  (1923-2006)

The Big Turtle Fanfare from the South China Sea

Continuum (1968)

Three Piano Etudes

String Quartet nr 2 (1968)

Interspersed with Ligeti re-mix

Artists

Edward Neeman, piano (Professor of  the ANU School of Music)

Donald Nicolson, harpsichord

Alma Moodie Quartet

ANU Jazz ensemble led by Miroslav Bukovsky trumpet (Professor of the ANU School of Music)