Interpreting selected violin works by György Kurtág

Performance of the violin works of Hungarian composer György Kurtág (1926-) requires interpretation of musical notation that is deliberately sparse and ambiguous, and due to the advanced age of the composer and his increasingly private persona, going directly to the source for guidance is no longer an option. The key to interpretation then lies with those violinists who have worked directly with Kurtág in preparing his works such as Hiromi Kikuchi, András Keller, Movses Pogossian and Graeme Jennings. This performance-oriented research project has focussed on selected key works of Kurtág - Signs, Games and Messages (1989-) for solo violin, Signs, Games and Messages (1989-) for string trio, Tre Pezzi (1979) for violin and piano and Varga Bálint Ligaturája (2007) for piano trio, and the resulting performances of this research are contained in the performance folio. These performances have been informed by guidance from Graeme Jennings, who has worked directly with Kurtág, and analysis of recordings by violinists who have experienced a privileged connection with Kurtág and his unnotated ideas about musical interpretation. This research contributes to the understanding of the unwritten performance practice of Kurtág’s violin works and reveals Kurtág’s preference for a gestural interpretation and a fragile and varied sound world that may border on the edge of audibility. The findings underscore the necessity for an experimental process when approaching Kurtág’s works and the exploration of a range of technical solutions to achieve the desired interpretative effects