That was it, I thought, on the closing day of the Flagey Piano Days, but certainly a success. Franz Schubert? No problem, always draws a crowd, but György Kurtág? Turned a hundred! Less well-known and less appreciated. Moreover, it was a very special programme. Still, Studio 4 was well-filled.
I've experienced Kurtag before, with Jan Michiels of course, then alternating with polyphony and Björn Schmelzer. That was with major works. Now it was different. All miniatures. Short pieces, sometimes just a minute long or even less but then a full hour without interruption. And yes, you might not have known, but Schubert sometimes wrote down his playful improvisations that he performed spontaneously in one of the many Heuriger for his Viennese friends. They turned out to be little pearls: Wälzer, Ländler, Ecossaises. Kurtag did that too, composing such small things. He found his inspiration in children who spontaneously experiment on the instrument, for them the piano is still a game and he called those pieces "Játékok" or "playthings".
Pierre-Laurent Aimard has really immersed himself in that minimal oeuvre of the Hungarian. And how! Kurtag has the reputation of being demanding. The recordings for his cd of those Játékok were made in Budapest in the presence of and literally under the approving eye and ear of the composer. As a performer you must have a very special friendship with Kurtag. You can't ask Schubert for advice anymore. But during the pandemic Aimard also delved into those unknown miniatures of Schubert "intended for the guinguettes around Vienna" and found "greatness in the trivial".
But how should you now appreciate such a concert and that music? Let me define it this way. Those "Schuberts" are actually pleasing notes in search of a charming and pleasant melody to be fixed in a well-sounding phrase of a score, whereas with Kurtag it's about notes that are no longer subordinate to anything, not to structure or melody or harmony. The notes are simply sovereign, they just want to be sound, they are notes that have freed themselves from their servitude to please, they are emancipated notes that only ask to be heard, preferably very intently.
Why this daring combination of Schubert with Kurtag? "I want to take responsibility for interweaving musical heritage with the unknown", according to Aimard. Beautiful, isn't it! Even more beautiful was to see and hear him play so intensely, dressed entirely in black and completely concentrated, without expansive gestures. All of this made us focus even more on those new and wondrous sounds that flooded Studio 4. A delightful introduction it was to those short Schuberts and even shorter Kurtags.
