KORTÁRS, KLASSZIKUS, KORTÁRS-KLASSZIKUS

We had already recognized the need for a performance of Vortex Temporum when we first organized the festival five years ago. Gérard Grisey is among the most outstanding composers of the 20th Century, and this late piece (1995) is a real classic in several senses of the word. The multifaceted musical figures, drive, dramaturgy, the contrasted characters of its movements make it appear as a classical creation, while it sounds absolutely fresh even today.

At the close of the festival last year we decided to perform this piece at the opening concert of Transparent Sound Festival 2018. The question was, how to build a program around this piece that would somehow determine the image of the whole festival. We wanted to show how the work of different contemporary composers and the classics react to each other, and how the classics change in contemporary hands. So we present the work of four young Hungarian composers along with Grisey. Péter Tornyai reworked one of Ravel’s most inspired pieces from a century ago, Marcell Dargay delved into Hungarian and English alternative pop music of the 80s (Európa Kiadó, Sziámi, New Order). The finely harmonic style of Bálint Horváth, our Festival’s special-prize winner at the New Hungarian Music Forum 2017, carries allusions to earlier times, while Bálint Laczkó’s spirited piece adds even more pace to Grisey’s ”vortex”.