Jacob Greenberg

Back to Kurtag: with ICE two weeks ago, I played some piano duets from the Jatekok (Games) series, and two of his crystalline Bach transcriptions. Next week at Oberlin Tony Arnold and I are doing Kurtag’s Bornemisza song cycle again–which is still one of the most demanding things I’ve ever done. It takes such a total commitment of spirit to convey the visions of death, torment, and redemption that Kurtag so effectively conveys in his music; it also takes a lot of good humor, because that’s part of the music too.

On the same program Tony and I are putting the Kurtag in context with earlier composers who inspired him–Webern, Hugo Wolf, and his compatriot Gyorgy Ligeti. At Buffalo, my course this week will cover late Schumann, then after that we’re on to Liszt. Brooklyn is beautiful this weekend. On Monday for Yom Kippur I plan to spend the day at the Tea Lounge in Park Slope, not drinking tea, and writing.

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Earlier this week ICE recorded two major chamber pieces by George Crumb, with the composer present. George is truly the most wonderful, generous guy one could ever hope to work with, and Bridge Records treats him with love.

The school year in Buffalo is well under way now, and I’m looking forward to performances coming up here, including a piece by the Dutch composer Jacob ter Veldhuis for cello, piano, and boombox, which uses as source material the last recorded interview with Chet Baker. My great colleague Jonathan Golove will be on cello. My class has started out well–it’s a joy to talk about Schumann for two hours at a stretch.

ICEfest Chicago starts on the 12th–seven programs over a week, each in a different hot Chicago bar. The pianofest on the 17th includes two world premieres for piano eight- and ten-hands!

Also, a shout-out to Cary on his birthday just past.

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