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| György Kurtág and Benjamin Appl in the course of the recording of Strains of Life |
The good Hungarian composer György Kurtág is 99 as we speak.
This week Kurtág’s album, Strains of Life, with baritone Benjamin Appl, and pianists James Baillieu and Pierre Laurent Aimard is launched, the centrepiece of which is Kurtág’s Hölderlin Gesänge. In my current interview with Benjamin Appl, the baritone commented that working with Kurtág on the songs was a extremely demanding course of.
As he enters his one hundredth 12 months, Kurtág has launched some ideas on music, singing and the brand new disc.
Which qualities do you look/pay attention for in a singer within the efficiency of your compositions?
“For me, actual singing is my late spouse Márta’s darkish silver voice from her youth and the way in which she sang. What I educate singers is how Márta was capable of specific each nuance of the textual content and melody along with her voice. It’s not the custom that’s actually vital to me, however the lyrics of every tune and the recollections and emotions I’ve related to them.”
Benjamin Appl’s new album Strains of Life, on which you’re featured as composer and pianist, has simply been launched. How did the repertoire choice come about?
“Benjamin first got here to me for the Hölderlin-Gesänge in 2018, after which we began engaged on different songs. On this recording you possibly can hear every little thing {that a} solo baritone or a baritone and piano can carry out. We selected most of Schubert’s songs and the Sonntag by Brahms due to my recollections of Márta.”
What function does music play in your life now that you just enter your one hundredth 12 months?
“Music fills my on a regular basis life. I nonetheless learn literature and every little thing else that pursuits me, I additionally educate, however someway every little thing all the time revolves round music. Since my listening to deteriorated, I’ve been studying quite a lot of scores, as a result of now I can solely actually hear the music, from the within, by studying it.” Strains of Life
