{"id":18766,"date":"2014-05-12T20:09:30","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T00:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=18766"},"modified":"2014-05-12T20:39:49","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T00:39:49","slug":"no-going-back-kurtags-kafka-fragments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2014\/05\/12\/no-going-back-kurtags-kafka-fragments\/","title":{"rendered":"No Going Back: Kurt\u00e1g\u2019s Kafka Fragments"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stacie<\/a>
Stacie Dunlop, soprano Photo credit- Helen Tansey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At 88, Gy\u00f6rgy K\u00fartag is Hungary\u2019s most senior composer, and an artist whose work carries an increasing weight and importance in Europe and North America\u2019s contemporary classical scene. Despite Kurt\u00e1g\u2019s visible roots in the European 20th\u00a0century avant-garde, his music remains anomalous and hard to place; the music is often brief and gestural, carrying with it a brokenness and fragile brevity that separates him from much of the \u201cmonumentalism\u201d of 20th\u00a0century repertoire. Despite these fresh characteristics, Kurt\u00e1g\u2019s music remains intensely introspective, a quiet reminder that the 20th\u00a0century was not only a period of increasing connectedness, but one of agitation, fragmentation, and loneliness.<\/p>\n

Like most of his music, K\u00fartag\u2019s Kafka Fragments<\/i> (1985-7) for soprano and violin, looks backward, drawing influence from Webern, Berg, and expressionism, particularly the concept of the artist as an \u201coutsider\u201d – a victim of society and its cruelty.<\/p>\n

The marriage of Kurt\u00e1g with Kafka is destiny-driven. Taking fragments of Kafka\u2019s writing, the entire cycle consists of 40 short movements clocking in at around 70 minutes. The work is also very challenging, both for the vocalist and the violinist.<\/p>\n

The concert on Saturday night, May 10th\u00a0at Gallery 345 consisted of the Kafka Fragments<\/i> and an opening piece for clarinet, bassoon and electronics, titled We Were the Sun<\/i>, by reed instrumentalist Peter Lutek. Lutek\u2019s improvisation was primarily meditative in nature, consisting of warm drones made by electronically manipulating the tones of his clarinet and bassoon.<\/p>\n

After a short intermission, Stacie Dunlop and Andrea Neumann presented Kurt\u00e1g\u2019s Kafka Fragments<\/i> in four sets. The work\u2019s text set a wide variety of moods and situations, ranging from existential angst \u201cSlept, woke, slept, woke, miserable life.\u201d “To lost love too late. The sweetness of sorrow and love\u201d, all drawn from Kafka\u2019s personal writings. Dunlop and Neumann performed the work with intentional precision. Dunlop\u2019s voice was strong and agile, and melodically leaped about like a violinist\u2019s figures jumping across strings. Neumann\u2019s violin primarily provided accompaniment, though occasionally crept to the forefront of the texture with bright, angular virtuosity.<\/p>\n

A musical work of such importance and virtuosity will be rarely heard even in Toronto, and both Dunlop and Neumann should be commended not only for their discipline and artistry, but also for their bravery at committing themselves to such a challenge.<\/p>\n

Tyler Versluis<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At 88, Gy\u00f6rgy K\u00fartag is Hungary\u2019s most senior composer, and an artist whose work carries an increasing weight and importance in Europe and North America\u2019s contemporary classical scene. Despite Kurt\u00e1g\u2019s visible roots in the European 20th\u00a0century avant-garde, his music remains anomalous and hard to place; the music is often brief and gestural, carrying with it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":18768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[117,19,38,52,63,1],"tags":[4634,4584,3110],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/05\/Kafka.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-4SG","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18766"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18774,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18766\/revisions\/18774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18766"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}