Virtuosity plays an important part in the music of György Ligeti. His concertos require extremely versatile soloists, yet the same applies to the performers of his works for keyboard instruments, his chamber music and even the orchestral pieces. Ligeti’s Piano Études in particular can serve as good examples of works requiring an almost superhuman playing technique – an explanation of why they are not performed by too many pianists, yet equally one of many reasons why they count as a pinnacle of piano music of the last decades. Yet one can also think of the part of “Gepopo” in his opera Le Grand Macabre, which was specifically devised to include some of the most demanding arias in the entire repertoire. While virtuosity is normally regarded as an attribute mainly associated with performance, it appears almost as if in Ligeti’s case it has become part of his compositional aesthetics.
Yet with this composer virtuosity never comes at the expense of substance. Ligeti carefully devised complex, multi-layered rhythmic, harmonic and melodic structures which serve as the texture through which the virtuosic expression unfolds.
Another source of virtuosity in Ligeti’s work is his engagement with traditional music, be it related to the Hungarian and Romanian surroundings of his youth or the intricacies of styles from other continents such as African polyrhythm.
This conference will be a forum to discuss these and other aspects of virtuosity in and around Ligeti’s music. These can include issues of composition, performativity, reception, aesthetics and others.
We invite paper proposals which will be 20 minutes in length, followed by 10 minutes of discussion. Abstracts should not exceed 250 words. Beyond the abstract proposals should include:
Title,
Name, contact details and affiliation,
Brief biography (maximum 100 words),
Indication of equipment that is required.
Proposals should be sent, as a Word-compatible file, to ligeticluj2025@yahoo.com. The deadline for submissions is Friday, 7 February.
Organising Committee
Wolfgang Marx (Dublin)
Nicholas Cook (Cambridge)
Alexandra Magazin (Cluj-Napoca)
Cristina-Eleonora Pascu (Cluj-Napoca)
Adrian Temeş (Cluj-Napoca)
Heidy Zimmermann (Basel)