Sorrow Songs Presented by Liszt Academy

EPITAPHS

Jeney: László Rajk’s Watermark (2019)
Jeney: „My adored...” – excerpt from the Funeral Rite (to the poem by Sándor Weöres, 1995/2007/2018)
Liszt: Le Crucifix, S. 342-I / LW. K9 (Victor Hugo, 1879/83)
Jeney: If nothing to do – In memory of Péter Esterházy (to the poem by Dezső Tandori, 2016)
Liszt: Le Crucifix, S. 342-II / LW. K9
Jeney: „Was hast du verbrochen?” Epitaphium Ildikó Vékony (2017)
Liszt: Le Crucifix, S. 342-III / LW. K9 (Victor Hugo, 1879/83)
György Kurtág: Thomas Blum in memoriam (1992)
György Kurtág: T.D.: Beckett scenes (on a poem of Dezső Tandori, 2021) – premiere
György Kurtág: J. A. Fragment (2021)
György Kurtág: Three Old Inscriptions, Op. 25 – 3. On a Cross in the Cemetery at Mecseknádasd (1992)
Jeney: Márta Kurtág’s Watermark (2019)

SORROW SONGS

Vigilate ergo – Gregorian antiphon (The Istanbul Antiphonary, about 1360)
Schubert: Der Tod und das Mädchen, D. 531 (to the poem by Matthias Claudius, 1817)
Máté Balogh: Wenn dein Mütterlein... (to the poem by Friedrich Rückert, 2014)
Schubert: Wandrers Nachtlied I., D. 224 (to the poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1815)
Barnabás Dukay: The Sun is but a Morning Star – introitus and hymn for piano
Hildegard von Bingen: O ignée Spiritus (a Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum sorozatból, 1150 körül)

HAMLET LET IT

György Kurtág: Az hit... (1998)
György Kurtág: Dad’s summ’r, Mum’s summ’r..., Watermark (two excerpts from the song series AB-Játékok to the poems by Dezső Tandori, 2020)
Brahms: O Welt, ich muss dich lassen, IJB13, Nr.11. (1896)
Brahms: 5 Ophelia-Lieder, WoO 22, Nr. 1-2-3. 
Brahms: Albumblatt in A minor, IJB3 (1853)
Brahms: 5 Ophelia-Lieder, WoO 22, Nr. 4.
Brahms: O wie selig seid ihr doch, ihr Frommen IJB13, Nr.6. (1896)
Brahms: 5 Ophelia-Lieder, WoO 22, Nr. 5.
György Kurtág: Schatten (1998)
Shostakovich: Dialogue between Hamlet and His Conscience, Op. 143/3
Jeney: Falling, not standing / A modern Hamlet-turn
György Kurtág: Three Songs to the poems by Dezső Tandori (2019) – 1. Hamlet Let It, 2. Alert, 3. Hamlet Let It [alio modo]

Judit Rajk (alto), László Borbély (piano), Tamás Zétényi (cello)

The programme of this habilitation concert composed with particular sensitivity by Judit Rajk, singer and teacher at the Liszt Academy, seeks, in three acts, to find answers and reassurance to spiritual and philosophical questions about death, transience and remembrance using the works of Schubert, Brahms, Liszt and Shostakovich as well as György Kurtág, Zoltán Jeney and Máté Balogh. The concert is structured around works written by these three Hungarian composers for Judit Rajk and her pianist chamber partner, László Borbély, including the final works by Zoltán Jeney, the recently deceased professor of the Liszt Academy, and György Kurtág's monodic works written for Judit Rajk in 2019-2020, which are the first pieces in the coalescing AB-Games for vocals series. There is no ignoring the fact that virtually all of the songs being performed by the vocalist known also as a teacher at the Liszt Academy’s Church Music Department are built on ancient, plainchant traditions, with special monophonic structure, chanting and recitative monologues in an inseparable unity with the lyrics.