György Kurtág: Kafka-Fragmente

by Anna Prohaska, Isabelle Faust

Overview

Which members of the 20th century avant-garde connect with audiences enough to make it onto the classical best-seller lists? Increasingly often, Gyoergy Kurtag does so, and this recording of his Kafka-Fragmente, Op. 24 (1987), was a commercial success in late summer of 2022. Kurtag pursued an extension of Anton Webern's already extreme concision, although he was also influenced, like any other Hungarian of the 20th century, by Bartok. The Kafka-Fragmente are fascinating, and they are exactly what the title suggests: settings of little bits of text by Franz Kafka, who was already aphoristic. Kurtag found resonance in the writings of Kafka -- and later Samuel Beckett -- after his own existential crisis brought on by the failure of the Hungarian uprising of 1956 and his subsequent flight to the West. These texts are organized into four parts, tracing the general theme of a path. They are set to music for violin and soprano, ranging in length from 16 seconds to nearly seven minutes; most are very short. To hold the listener's attention for an hour of this is no small feat, but Kurtag does it. He requires precise, virtuosic performances, and that is what he receives here from violinist Isabelle Faust and soprano Anna Prohaska. Each fragment is entirely different from the others, and it would be hard to imagine two performers more sympathetic to this repertory. They get excellent support themselves from Harmonia Mundi's engineering team at the Teldex Studio in Berlin. This is truly, absolutely original avant-garde music with broad appeal. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	08/19/2022
Label:	HARMONIA MUNDI
UPC:	3149020944653

Tracks

1. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Die Guten gehn im gleichen Schritt
2. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Wie ein Weg im Herbst
3. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Verstecke
4. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Ruhelos
5. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Berceuse I
6. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Nimmermehr (Excommunicatio)
7. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Wenn er mich immer fr¿¿gt
8. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Es zupfte mich jemand am Kleid
9. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Die Wei¿¿n¿¿herinnen
10. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Szene am Bahnhof
11. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Sonntag, den 19. Juli 1910 (Berceuse II). Hommage ¿¿ Jeney
12. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Meine Ohrmuschel...
13. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Einmal brach ich mir das Bein. Chassidischer Tanz
14. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Umpanzert
15. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Zwei Spazierst¿¿cke. Authentisch-plagal
16. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Keine R¿¿ckkehr
17. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Stolz (1910 / 15. November, zehn Uhr.)
18. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Tr¿¿umend hing die Blume. Hommage ¿¿ Schumann
19. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil I: Nichts dergleichen
20. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil II: Der wahre Weg. Hommage-message ¿¿ Pierre Boulez
21. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil III: Haben? Sein?
22. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil III: Der Coitus als Bestrafung. Canticulum Mari¿¿ Magdalen¿¿
23. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil III: Meine Festung
24. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil III: Schmutzig bin ich, Milena...
25. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil III: Elendes Leben (Double)
26. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil III: Der begrenzte Kreis
27. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil III: Ziel, Weg, Z¿¿gern
28. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil III: So fest
29. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil III: Verstecke (Double)
30. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil III: Penetrant j¿¿disch
31. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil III: Staunend sahen wir das gro¿¿e Pferd
32. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil III: Szene in der Elektrischen
33. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil IV: Zu sp¿¿t (22. Oktober 1913)
34. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil IV: Eine lange Geschichte
35. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil IV: In memoriam Robert Klein
36. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil IV: Aus einem alten Zotizbuch
37. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil IV: Leoparden
38. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil IV: In memoriam Joannis Pilinszky
39. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil IV: Wiederum, wiederum
40. Kafka-Fragmente, for soprano & violin, Op. 24~Teil IV: Es blendete uns die Mondnacht...

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Anna Prohaska   Primary Artist,Soprano (Vocal)
Isabelle Faust   Primary Artist,Violin

Technical Credits

Martin Sauer   Realization,Artistic Director,Editing
Andrea Felvegi   Photography
Marco Borggreve   Photography
Charles Johnston   Liner Note Translation
Franz Kafka   Text
Peter Sherwood   Text Translation
Anne do Paco   Liner Notes
Antonio Stradivari   Instrument Design
Julia Sherwood   Text Translation
Julian Schwenkner   Engineer
Elias Canetti   Text
Laurent Cantagrel   Text Translation,Liner Note Translation
Stephan von Baehr   Instrument Design
Gyoergy Kurtag   Composer