Gyorgy Kurtag

Composer György Kurtág writes short, compressed, complex music, much of it for chamber-sized forces. His style is rooted in that of Webern, Bartók, and other major figures of modernism in the early and middle 20th century. Kurtág remains active in his late nineties, and he is one of the last survivors of that stylistic epoch. He is also a pianist, and he performed his own music on the 2025 album Lines of Life: Schubert & Kurtág by baritone Benjamin Appl. Kurtág was born on February 19, 1926, in Lugoj, Romania. His parents were Hungarian Jews, and he moved to Budapest when he ...