nº94 / GYÖRGY KURTÁG / LA SCAM / PARIS
- Zoltan Alexander
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
La Scam in Paris celebrated the 100th anniversary of one of the most significant Hungarian pianists and composers, György Kurtág, with a film projection of The Matchstick Man / L’Homme Allumette directed by Judit Kele.
Review by Zoltan Alexander
100 YEARS
OF A
MATCHSTICK MAN of a Hungarian contemporary music composer György Kurtág
Boulez, Ligeti, Kurtág, and Eötvös.
These four names are deeply carved into the stone of contemporary music history. The latter three are Hungarian musicians, and Kurtág, who was born in 1926, in Lugoj, Transylvania (today, it is part of Romania), celebrated his 100th birthday this year.
In 1996, with a French film crew, rebellious Hungarian artist Judit Kele took off from Paris and returned to her native city, Budapest, to record a glimpse of Kurtág’s life on film. She was not a film director at the time, but an artist who understood perfectly well the controversial life, the upheavals, and the complexity of another artist.
The result was a mosaic-like collection of intimate moments of Kurtág in rehearsals, Kurtág at the piano, Kurtág with Márta, his wife, Kurtág with friends, and Kurtág alone in the fog in Budapest.
PHOTO / György Kurtàg at the piano at BMC Budapest Music Centre / Photo © Courtesy of Akos Stiller
Following the Hungarian uprising in 1956, Kurtág planned to emigrate, like Ligeti, but was hindered by circumstances. He was, however, able to live in Paris for a short year, between 1957 and 1958, but suffered from severe depression. He used to say: "I realised to the point of despair that nothing I had believed to constitute the world was true", and "I felt like Kafka’s cockroach, trying to become human". When he returned to Budapest, his music marked a crucial turning point, and he called it Opus 1.
Kurtág is one of the last living pillars of postwar composers of the European avant-garde. He was an academic piano teacher at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he was previously a student of Pál Kadosa, and where he met his wife Márta Kinsker and György Ligeti, who became his close friend. In 1967, when he was appointed professor of piano at the Academy, his students included two much-acclaimed pianists, Zoltán Kocsis and András Schiff.
PHOTO / György Kurtàg / Photo © Courtesy of Andrea Webes Felvégi
For decades, he and his wife gave recitals on one piano, selections from the ten-volume collection Games / Játékok, and his Bach Transcriptions. They performed together for 60 years.
Kurtág's international recognition began to grow in 1981 in Paris, with the premiere of Messages of the Late Miss R.V.Troussova. He has written orchestral works and operas, and performed at La Scala in Milan, with the Berlin Philharmonic, also at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Cité de la Musique, and the Festival d'Automne, in Paris.
Kurtág composes painstakingly and haltingly. His compositions are often made up of many very brief movements. The most extreme of all is his piano piece Flowers We Are, Mere Flowers, which consists of just seven notes.
PHOTO / Potrait of György Kurtàg / Photo © Courtesy of Balázs Mohai
VIDEO / "Messages of the Late Miss R.V.Troussova." by György Kurtàg with soprano Viktoria Vitenko, conductor Luigi Gaggero / Video © Courtesy of Ukho Ensemble (Kyiv)
THE INSTIGATOR asked artist, film director Judit Kele about her film and the composer. She passionately explained:
“To reveal in space what is essentially invisible, is music. This is the project that runs through my film ‹‹L’Homme Allumette ››, an inner portrait of the great, contemporary Hungarian composer György Kurtág. I witnessed the way he explores the music that was born from almost nothing - a note, a gesture - that finally unfolds in silence. The film translates this alchemy through images of nature, shadows and lights, and dialogues between the performers. For Kurtág, music becomes a relationship, an inner truth, and an art of living. According to him, one must die (the ego and its lies) to live, and descend to hell to access the joy of being.”
VIDEO / "Bach Transcriptions" of Márta and György Kurtàg / Video © Courtesy of BMC Budapest Music Centre
When Judit Kele starts explaining, no one could stop her. She continues :
“Kurtág's music is inseparable from the gesture that embodies it. His music is a dialogue, which is a fruitful tension between two notes, two instruments, a hand and a voice, a gesture and a glance, two people, or when the teacher becomes the student and vice versa. Here, the music is more than knowledge or technique. It is an art of living, a way of being founded on total presence of the moment, and uncompromising fidelity to oneself. Kurtág's music is love, the only antidote to death, a fragile spark that warms hands and hearts”.
In February 2026, Kurtág turned 100, and a two-week music festival was held in Budapest, at (BMC) Budapest Music Centre, and at Müpa, including the world premiere of his second opera, Die Stechardin, at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, dedicated to his wife. György Kurtág Jr. also performed a work, composed together with the honouree, and closed the festival with Kafka Fragments.
“I am very proud that Kurtág lives and works at the Professor Suite of our music centre BMC, following the footsteps of Péter Eötvös. Now, at this age, he makes the most of his time: when he is not teaching or composing, he's reading. Sitting down to talk to him is a wonderful journey through time. Listening to him teach is the highest level of education. We are delighted to organise the Kurtág100 festival to celebrate his music career.” László Gõz, founder and director of (BMC) Budapest Music Centre.
The film Kurtág Fragments by director Dénes Nagy premiered at Müpa in Budapest, whilst La Scam in Paris celebrated his birthday with film director Judit Kele and her version of Kurtág: The Matchstick Man / L’Homme Allumette.
Happy 100, Maestro!
VIDEO / A film excerpt "KURTAG100" of György Kurtàg / Video © Courtesy of Dénes Nagy
INDEX
COVER
Portrait of György Kurtàg
Photo © Courtesy of Balázs Mohai / BMC Budapest Music Centre
Cover design © ZOLTAN+MEDIA Paris
THEATRE / CONCERT HALL
“L’Homme Allumette” a film by Judit Kele
KURTAG100 2026 / György Kurtàg
Anja Unger / President of La Scam
La Scam / Paris (France)
2 June 2026
PHOTOGRAPHS
© Balázs Mohai / BMC Budapest Music Centre
© Andrea Webes Felvégi
© Charles Alley
VIDEO
"The Matchstick Man / L’Homme Allumette" © Judit Kele
VISUALS & WEBDESIGN
© Zoltan Alexander ZOLTAN+MEDIA Paris
WEB LINKS
LA SCAM PARIS
BMC BUDAPEST MUSIC CENTER
