Signs, games, bouquets of flowers

Short pieces are practical. Be it to supplement or structure a concert program, be it for instructive work in the university sector or be it to look over the shoulders of the composers a little more closely as they work. Two collections with numerous, predominantly short pieces by György Kurtág and Heinz Holliger, which were written over a fairly long period of time, should therefore attract a great deal of attention.

Under the title Signs, Games and Messages (Signs, Games and Messages), collections for violin, violoncello and clarinet, for example, have already been published. Now György Kurtág's solo and chamber music works for oboe and cor anglais are available, which deserve a closer look. His writing moves in an interesting field of tension between very precisely notated and very freely intended. Detailed articulation indications, such as various slurs (hierarchically or alternatively conceived), contrast with an extensive renunciation of bar lines or overly precise tempo or rhythm indications. Some ossia passages offer the performer options. In Kurtág's music, the most precise characterization possible is always central: here, a wide variety of verbal indications help, such as più sonore, raddolcendo, con slancio, disperato, pochiss. più intenso or again and again rubato and parlando.

The most extensive and best-known work in the collection is In Nomine - all'ongheresea magnificent monody that exists in a slightly different form for numerous instruments. But some shorter pieces also deserve in-depth study, such as the Sappho fragment or the two-part Hommage à Elliott Carter. In the chamber music works, a clarinet instrument is often added (in no less than three cases it is the contrabass clarinet). As a very short duo, the fierce Versetto for cor anglais and bass clarinet, but also the infinitely slow and (except for a brief outburst) infinitely quiet Rozsnyai Ilona in memoriam for cor anglais and contrabass clarinet. The two duos for soprano and oboe and cor anglais are also extremely poetic, Lorand Gaspar: Désert and Angelus Silesius: The Ros'. All the works in this extraordinary and magnificent collection are dedicated to Heinz Holliger, who penned the other edition, which is reported on here.

His collection consists of ten duos for oboe and harp, which were originally composed for his own use. They are playful, sometimes very short works, birthday presents for Robert Suter, Elliott Carter or Peter-Lukas Graf, for example, some of which have now also been arranged for other melody instruments (flute, carinette, saxophone). Two longer and very demanding pieces stand out at first glance from the "Albumblätter-Miniaturen": firstly, the work that gives the edition its title Un bouquet de penséesdedicated to his esteemed teacher Émile Castagnaud on his 90th birthday, an expansive dialogic song from 1999 for oboe d'amore and harp; on the other hand Surrogò, all'ongheresededicated to György Kurtág in 2006, a buzzing and shimmering composition (these expressions can be found in the subtitle!) of a highly energetic character for cor anglais and harp, which dissolves into a tonal nothingness at the end.

In addition to this extremely worthwhile compilation, the previously published Mobile for oboe and harp. On the one hand, the new edition is indispensable, as significant changes have been made to both the harp and oboe parts. On the other hand, the work now loses a decisive characteristic feature: the twelve short parts were printed on one large page in the first edition and could be played in three different sequences. If now, with the new edition, an entire booklet (in which the three versions are printed one after the other) is played through and, in addition, the transitional fermatas have to be constantly leafed through, the quasi-improvisatory character of the performance, for which the title Mobile stands. The reviewer takes the liberty of recommending that the individual parts be slightly reduced in size and glued onto a large cardboard as in the first edition. With good placement, the two musicians could even play from a music box, which would allow for even more lively and spontaneous interactions.

György Kurtàg: Signs, Games and Messages, solos and chamber music works for oboe and cor anglais, Z. 15 074, ca. Fr. 52.00, Editio Musica Budapest 2018

Heinz Holliger: Un bouquet de pensées, 10 pieces for oboe (oboe d'amore, cor anglais) and harp (individual pieces also for flute/alto flute, clarinet, soprano/alto/tenor saxophone and harp), score and parts ED 9467, € 55.00, Schott, Mainz

id., Mobile, for oboe and harp, playing score ED 5384, € 28.00, Schott, Mainz