Kurtag Játékok – Spiele – Games 1

The "Games" cycle, created for piano from 1973 onwards, was originally conceived as a piano school, in the first volumes of which Kurtág introduced children to the basic elements of piano playing and musical thinking, and, perhaps even more importantly, of informal music-making. Over the past decades, however, the cycle lost its didactic character and became more of a document about Kurtág's composer's workshop, which also gives us a key to his large-format symphonic, chamber and vocal works. This change is indicated by the fact that from the fifth issue onwards the “Games” cycle has the subtitle “Diary notes, personal messages”.

The often aphoristically short sentences contain rich associations relating to numerous phenomena in European music history, and for the most part they are homage or in memoriam sentences or personal, very subjective messages to friends, colleagues, loved ones and students - and about them to all music-loving people.

• perpetuum mobile prelude + waltz in c
• Hitting with your palms is permitted
• flowers the people flowers the people
• tap flowers also the stars
• funnel game
• with the forearms homage to Verdi
• strolling around the c toene night song
• small chorale
• tripping, staggering
• carrying, swaying, dawdling
• homage to bartok
• let's fool around
• lost sounds
• silent talking palms homage to mariassy istvan
• harmonize slowly changing
• the bunny and the fox legato
• Waltz clapping hand game
• The stone frog slowly went flowers to the people
• fifths
• pleasant moments of the young fist fighter
• portrait
• sleepy
• 5 small piano pieces play with three fingers
• gallop
• cocky csardas
• tug pull
• tone and cluster of melancholy overtones
• small chorale
• flowers the people
• clay and clay grape sarabande
• funnel game
• scherzando homage to Beethoven
• Fifths fourths palm play with overtones
• knots almost in my sleep
• hidden scale flowers the people
• melody with twists sparrow noise
• bicker mikrorondo
• mime
• homage to ligeti blows
• palms in side movements
• Homage to Tchaikovsky
• homage to eoetvoes
• homage to Paganini
• preliminary studies on the hoquetus
• perpetual motion and once again flowers the people