【HKU MUSE House Programme】Limitless Limitations: Ligeti 100

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16 SEP 2023 | SAT | 8PM Grand Hall, The University of Hong Kong

Limitless Limitations: Ligeti 100

The 100 TH Anniversary of György Ligeti's Birth

Continuum

Stephen Hung, harpsichord

Musica ricercata I.

Rachel Cheung, piano

Sostenuto – Misurato – Prestissimo

II. Mesto, rigido e cerimoniale III. Allegro con spirito IV. Tempo di valse (poco vivace – "à l'orgue de Barbarie") V. Rubato. Lamentoso VI. Allegro molto capriccioso VII. Cantabile, molto legato VIII. Vivace. Energico IX. (Béla Bartók in memoriam) Adagio. Mesto – Allegro maestoso X. Vivace. Capriccioso XI. (Omaggio a Girolamo Frescobaldi) Andante misurato e tranquillo

Sonata for Solo Cello

Pun Chak-yin, cello

Dialogo. Adagio, rubato, cantabile Capriccio. Presto con slancio

String Quartet No. 2 Allegro nervoso Sostenuto, molto calmo Come un meccanismo di precisione Presto furioso, brutale, tumultuoso Allegro con delicatezza

Cong Quartet Francis Chik, violin Ayaka Ishiwatari, violin Caleb Wong, viola Cheng Yan-ho, cello

Today's concert is recorded by RTHK Radio 4. Broadcast details will be announced later.

BIOGRAPHIES

Stephen Hung, harpsichord Stephen Hung is primarily a pianist with a keen interest in J.S. Bach's music. He studied at London's Royal Academy of Music and had lessons on the harpsichord and the organ there. Since graduation in 2013, Hung has been an active performer, both as a soloist and as a member of chamber music groups including the TimeCrafters, the Early Music Society of Hong Kong, and Song is Being. Some notable performances include Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time with the TimeCrafters at HKU's Museum and Art Gallery in May 2019, appearances at the Musica Antiqua Takamatsu in Japan with Song is Being in February 2019, and the complete Well-Tempered Clavier in July 2022.

Aside from traditional recitals and concerts, Hung has been exploring other formats of performance, including jukebox concerts, concerts synchronised with video animations (collaborating with the visual-artist Oychir), and collaborative projects with painters and photographers.

Rachel Cheung, piano 2017 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Finalist & Audience Award Winner Pianist Rachel Cheung is hailed as "a poet, but also a dramatist" displaying "the most sophisticated and compelling music-making" (The Dallas Morning News ). Also a Young Steinway Artist, she continues to build a reputation for an elegant stage presence, giving sensitive and refined performances across three continents.

Rachel has appeared with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Sydney Symphony, London Chamber, and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras. She has also given recitals and chamber music concerts in many cities in Northern America, Europe, and Asia, including New York, Toronto, Paris, Hamburg, and London. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Rachel graduated with first class honours at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts under the tutelage of Eleanor Wong, and later studied with Peter Frankl at the Yale School of Music. Rachel was awarded Artist of the Year (Music) by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in 2019. Her first international debut album Reflections , featuring the Chopin Preludes, is released by Universal Music.

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Pun Chak-yin, cello Born and raised in Hong Kong, Pun Chak-yin received his Diploma and Bachelor of Music Degree in cello from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) in 2012 and 2015, under the tutelage of cellist Karey Kwok-Chee Ho. In 2017, Pun completed his Master of Arts Degree in cello performance at Royal Academy of Music, where he was awarded the Mary Stuart Harding entrance award, under the tutelage of Professor David Strange. Pun is currently teaching at the HKAPA Junior Music Programme.

Over the years, Pun was awarded scholarships including Breguet Trey Lee Scholarship in Pursuit of Musical Excellence, Freemason's Lodge Scholarship, First Initiative Foundation Music Scholarship, and Breguet Trey Lee Performing Arts Scholarship.

Active in chamber music playing, Pun gave per formances of string ensembles, including at St. John's Smith Square, Concert of Finland 100 & Hong Kong 20th return, and The 19th China Shanghai International Arts Festival. In 2021, Pun has joined the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble (HKNME) as an associate musician.

Cong Quartet Francis Chik, violin ｜Ayaka Ishiwatari, violin Caleb Wong, viola ｜Cheng Yan-ho, cello

Cong Quartet is a professional string quartet in demand based in Hong Kong & the Netherlands and have performed around Asia, Europe & the United States. The Quartet believes that the humanistic experience of chamber music is a treasure to the community. Currently a quartet under Le Dimore del Quartetto from Italy, a young artist group of the Musethica in Europe, as well as a quartet at the Netherland String Quartet Academy in Amsterdam. Cong Quartet is the winner of Musique à Flaine 2023 Artistic Residency, and was previously the Ensemble-in-Residence & Artist in Residence of the Chinese University of Hong Kong from 2019-2022, they won top prizes from 2019 Salzburg Mozart International Chamber Competition in Tokyo, the 2021 Kreutzer International Competition, and 2022 Virtuoso Belcanto Festival Chamber Music Competition.

Ms. Ishiwatari's appearance is kindly supported by Andante Musica.

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MUSIC IN WORDS

Music in Words:

Ligeti

100

15 SEP 2023 | FRI | 7PM Rehearsal Room, LG1/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, HKU Moderator: Prof. Chan Hing-yan, Department of Music, HKU Speakers: Stephen Hung Rachel Cheung Pun Chak-yin Caleb Wong & Cheng Yan-ho (Cong Quartet) Before stepping on stage for the unprecedented 'Ligeti 100' tribute concert, musicians join Prof. Chan Hing-yan and share their thoughts on learning and performing György Ligeti’s masterworks.

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Limitless Limitations: Ligeti 100 GYÖRGY SÁNDOR LIGETI (1923-2006) PROGRAMME NOTES

An eminent figure in avant-garde music, György Sándor Ligeti handled sounds and tone colours through his innovative approach to textures and forms, harmony and rhythm, space and motion. He opened doors that many did not know existed. His compositions have caught the attention of both the non-musical communities and specialists who crave sophistication. His influence has reached beyond 'art music' and into the entertainment industry, with music having been featured in major films such as Stanley Kubrick's classic 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999); Martin Scorsese's psychological thriller Shutter Island (2010); and the remake of Godzilla (2014).

A Hungarian Jew born in 1923, Ligeti lived through the horror of World War II, and became interested in—and later disappointed by—the notion of Soviet utopia. This disappointment redirected his artistic interests from the previous styles of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály to the avant-garde. Like many of Hungary's finest talents, Ligeti fled to the West after the unsuccessful Hungarian revolution of 1956, when Soviet troops took over the country and terminated its prevailing democratic movement. His resettlement in the West allowed him to become acquainted with electronic and serial music pioneers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, and with leading centres of new music such as Darmstadt, Stockholm, and Cologne.

Continuum (1968) Continuum was Ligeti's attempt to make music behaving like, in the composer's own words, "a precision mechanism". Composed for harpsichordist Antoinette Vischer in 1968, it features intriguing sonic effects that has triggered much discussion and debates—some of which have compared it to patient's depiction of the schizophrenic experience and to the magnetic fluctuations of a comet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

When asked to talk about this piece, the composer stated that he was intending to create "a paradoxically continuous sound… that would have to consist of innumerable thin slices of salami".

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Continuum consists mostly of rapid succession of notes and intervals in the forms of tremolos and scale-like figures. Its formal structure is intuitive; it begins abruptly, proceeds with repeated attempts to thicken texture through webs of changing pitches and intervals, and ends almost as abruptly as it begins. Breaks are ambiguous and indistinct. A considerable level of tension is present throughout the piece, resulting in a strong sense of momentum. The harpsichord's distinctive features play a major role in the piece's character: the instrument's string-plugging mechanism, including its damper sound, creates a thin but complex tone colour that contributes to a sonic image of unceasing sound; its light and rapid touch allows exceedingly fast and precise repetitions that make a depiction of continuum possible; its relative inability to control dynamics and articulation, while still in command of many other aspects of sound, contributes to a sense of spontaneity that is needed to capture or mimic uninterrupted sounds.

Musica ricercata (1951-1953) Musica ricercata is a set of 11 piano pieces structured according to the idea of pitch class, which categorises notes based on octave equivalence (to illustrate: all notes with the letter name C, for example, would belong in the same pitch class, even if they are octaves apart from each other). It is not entirely certain why the composer named the work ricercata (ricercar), which normally has two meanings: an established contrapuntal style originated from the 16th and 17th centuries; a term that means 'to search'. On the one hand, it is possible to argue that the composer named the piece for the second meaning, because strictly speaking, only the 11th and last piece of Musica ricercata conforms to the first meaning. On the other hand, one may also argue that the composer was adhering to the first meaning, while he attempted a 'search' for new contrapuntal tools—tools that are unheard of in conventional ricercars—to fulfil the relevant requirements. In any case, the composition presents a variety of quasi-contrapuntal textures and effects that are probably best described as experimental.

The composition is Ligeti's early work, composed between 1951 and 1953, before his resettlement in the West and his artistic exploration of the avantgarde. The work was premiered on 18 November 1969 in Sundsvall, Sweden.

The 11 pieces in the set are organised in the manner of increasing pitch classes: the first piece employs only two pitch classes, with each succeeding piece 6

employing an additional pitch class; the 11th and last piece uses all 12 pitch classes. Polyrhythmic, the first piece only makes use of the pitch classes of A and D. In fact, the piece is built mostly on the note of A, as it exhibits the note's various rhythmic and textural/contrapuntal possibilities; the D note is introduced only as the final pitch, which brings a sense of transition. The second piece differs from the first significantly both in mood and in material. A rigid two-note motive recurs in double octaves near the two ends of the keyboard and in single octaves near the centre. The third piece takes advantage of its four pitch classes of C - E - E-flat - G and creates a confrontation between C major and C minor. The fourth piece, a waltz interrupted occasionally by a duple rhythm, is followed by a serious and somber fifth, which is reminiscent of the second. The subsequent pieces often alternate in tempo and in mood: the sixth piece is fast and features sudden shifts in dynamics and register; the seventh piece is in singing style, featuring a folk-like melody that transforms itself into a manner of a canon; the octave-based eighth piece is a forceful, abrupt, and dissonant dance in 7/8 time; the nineth piece goes from slow to fast, resembling the technique Bartók used in his dance suite Contrasts ; the tenth piece is virtuosic, bitonal, and dissonant; the slow and tranquil finale is a tribute to Girolamo Frescobaldi, who is often considered a key figure in the development of ricercar.

Sonata for Solo Cello (1948/1953) Sonata for Solo Cello began as a testimony to young love, and ended with being a victim of political censorship. The piece was completed in 1953, after a five-year genesis; however, it was performed in a concert for the first time only in 1983 and it was not published until 1990.

In 1948, while studying at the Budapest Music Academy, Ligeti composed a cello piece titled Dialogo for his romantic interest at the academy, a female cellist named Annuss Virány. Apparently, she was unaware of his intention, and she never performed it. Several years later, in 1953, when cellist Vera Dénes asked the composer for a musical piece, he offered to add a virtuosic capriccio movement to Dialogo , making it a two-movement unaccompanied sonata.

The sonata was quickly disproved by the Soviet-controlled Hungarian authorities, and it was barred from publication or performance. Dénes recorded the piece for radio broadcast, which the authorities allowed, but the airing never took place. Years later, Ligeti revealed that the second movement 7

(Capriccio ) was judged to be 'too modern'. After his arrival in the West in 1956, his artistic turn quickly rendered this sonata old-fashioned in his eyes, and he put it away.

Dialogo , as Ligeti described, is near the style of Kodály; Capriccio , on the other hand, is closer to Bartók's more vigorous style.

Dialogo is song-like, slow, and rhythmically flexible. It consists of 16 measures of highly uneven length; the longest includes as many as 20 beats, and the shortest only three. The music is virtually unmetered. Barlines serve only as tools that indicate phrasal breaks. The movement starts with two highly noticeable pairs of plugged chords, each of which connected by a glissando.

This plugged passage often alternates with longer bowed passages in the rest of the piece, creating an impression of dialogues between two individuals.

Dialogues are sometimes depicted also by phrases of contrasting dynamics or expression. When invited to discuss this movement, Ligeti said he was trying to "write a beautiful melody with a typical Hungarian profile" to portray "a man and a woman conversing".

Capriccio is a virtuosic movement in sonata form. It is fast, vigorous, and with a clear sense of momentum. Ligeti said he meant to make this movement virtuosic, and that he "loved virtuosity and took the playing to the edge of virtuosity much like Paganini". One may assume the movement's title to be originated from Paganini's famous cycle. Recurring rhythmic patterns in high speed occupy almost the entirety of the movement. Only one break is noticeable, when Dialogo's signature pair of glissando chords is briefly recalled.

String Quartet No. 2 (1968) The composer completed a total of three quartets during his lifetime. The first two represents his early style in Hungary; the first was a student work, and the second (String Quartet No. 1) was composed in 1954. When the present quartet, the third (String Quartet No. 2), was completed in August 1968, he was already an established composer in the West and a noted forerunner of the avant-garde.

It is reported that String Quartet No. 2 was Ligeti's favourite composition from that period of his life. The piece was dedicated to the LaSalle Quartet, an ensemble best known for its advocacy of Arnold Schoenberg's Second Viennese School and the styles derived from the European modernist 8

traditions. The ensemble premiered the piece in Baden-Baden on 14 December 1969.

The composition consists of five movements diverse in character. The first movement opens with a brief moment of void, without tempo, before an overwhelming sense of nervousness and urgency takes over. The second movement is calm and sustaining, as if sound is coming from afar. The middle section of the movement has some shocking moments, when deafening intervals come and go quickly, creating a turbulent atmosphere that almost resembles horror. The third movement is precise and machine-like. Repeated plugging of strings is a primary tool that creates its mechanical spirit, which resembles many moments in Continuum and the Capriccio movement in Sonata for Solo Cello. The fourth movement is fast and furious, brutal, and unrestrained. Excerpts that are reminiscent of earlier movements appear and vanish quickly from time to time, as if they are images from a hallucination. Fast but delicate, the last movement starts with two pitches alternating quickly, before they evolve into patterns of three, four, and five notes. Melodic intervals quickly widen to achieve a higher level of intensity. In the end, the movement returns to its opening figurations, before closing abruptly in glissando.

Programme notes by

Chung-kei Edmund Cheng PhD in Musicology, HKU

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