by Ben Hogwood Picture of György Kurtág (c) Filarmonia Hungaria

This week there have been celebrations in Budapest as the remarkable Hungarian composer György Kurtág celebrated reaching the great age of 100.

Putting together a playlist of Kurtág’s music is a difficult task, for it is so condensed that usually one is best listening to his listen to his music in short bursts.

Click on the Tidal link below, though, and you will enter a new musical world, where works for orchestra, string quartet, voice and violin, voice and piano and clarinet trio await. They are just some of the extraordinarily wide range of forces Kurtág has written for in his life, and the sequence ends with a major piece, Messages de feu Demoiselle R.V. Troussova (Messages of the Late Miss RV Troussova), completed in 1980 when Kurtág was a mere 54 years old.

If you listen I am sure you will agree he continues to be one of the most unique musical voices around today.

Listen to Kurtág on Tidal here

Published post no.2,805 – Saturday 21 February 2026