György Ligeti: The 18 Études (audio recording: Hyperion Records CDA68286)
- Submitting institution
-
Royal College of Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 6
- Type
- I - Performance
- Venue(s)
- Not applicable (audio recording)
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of first performance
- -
- Year of first performance
- 2021
- URL
-
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68286
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- Yes
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Ligeti imagined in his Etudes for Piano ‘highly emotive music of high contrapuntal and metric complexity’. They are renowned for their severe technical difficulty, but the ‘highly emotive’ dimension, contingent upon musical content and expressive potential, is less well known and remains in the background in most performances. My aim was to put the emotional and evocative power centre-stage, transcending the Etudes’ technical intransigence, and thus invite a more reflective and humanly sympathetic understanding of Ligeti’s music. Realising this aim involved identification and cultivation of all technical and musical tools necessary. Pianistic challenges were mastered progressively over years by devising, modifying and refining specific practice methods to drive hand independence, ‘aural independence’, and polyrhythmic awareness to levels exceeding those required by traditional pianistic practice. ‘Deliberate misalignment’ of the hands proved particularly productive. Giving many live performances provided useful trials of technical and musical progress, generated a re-evaluation of the importance of memorisation, and led to a new economy of pianistic movement and refinement of gesture. The process was supported by consulting recordings by other artists, reference to analytic scholarly literature about Ligeti’s music, a visit to the Paul Sacher Foundation in 2019 to examine original documents, and study of relevant non-Western musical traditions. A CD recording is an effective medium for demonstrating the results of my approach, allowing performance under near-perfect conditions (specifically: selected piano, acoustic, sound engineering, recording takes) resulting in a permanent resource. Hyperion Records have worldwide distribution and an international reputation that will help the research outcomes reach a wide listenership. The recording is accompanied by liner notes designed for generalist and specialist alike. So far, the project has led to a future curated series at Wigmore Hall in 2021/ 2022 and performances and broadcasts of the Etudes in the UK, USA, and Japan.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
