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00pm
Barbican Hall
Gyrgy Kurtg
Kafka-Fragments
David Michalek
Part 1
16 Keine Rckkehr
8 So fest
9 Verstecke (Double)
10 Penetrant Jdisch
3 Verstecke
19 Nichts dergleichen
4 Ruhelos
5 Berceuse I
6 Nimmermehr (Excommunicatio)
7 Wenn er mich immer frgt
Part 2
Part 4
9 Die Weissnherinnen
Part 3
10 Szene am Bahnhof
1 Haben? Sein?
12 Meine Ohrmuschel
3 Meine Festung
5 Leoparden
7 Wiederum, Wiederum
14 Umpanzert
15 Zwei Spazierstcke
(Authentisch-plagal)
programme note
Fragments of a life
Searching for the heroic in the midst of the mundane
Nimmermehr
Nevermore, nevermore, will you return to the cities,
nevermore will the great bell
resound above you.
Part 1 Fragment 6
programme note
What, then, is the story that Kurtg spins from his Kafka
fragments, short gnomic passages taken from the Czech
writers diaries and letters, some of which are no more than
a single sentence and when set to music last little more
than a minute, sometimes less (the shortest is a mere
10 seconds)? Someone once remarked that all of this
composers vocal compositions are shadow operas, but
writing in the programme for the first performance of
tonights production at Carnegie Hall in New York with
Dawn Upshaw as the soprano soloist, the critic Paul Griffiths
suggested another musical model for the Kafka-Fragments.
How often the imagery in the music as in the text, is of
journeying. The great song-cycle of the early 19th century,
Schuberts Winterreise, was a travelogue. Here, from the late
20th century, is a successor. The journey, though, is all within.
programme note
Elendes Leben
the fact that both of these artists came through some very
intense experiences in World War Two, leaving their lives
in fragments. They understood what it meant to live
clandestinely, what it meant to have a partial existence in
the shadows, an existence where there were numerous
When Franz Kafka died, his literary executor, the novelist Max identities, many of which were invented. In fact identity was
always elusive, something that had a grain of truth and
Brod, was instructed to destroy everything both his fiction
and personal papers. In an act of magnificent disobedience, maybe two grains of falsehood.
Brod burnt nothing and instead began the laborious task of Peter Sellars would argue that theres autobiography of an
preparing the manuscripts for publication. So are these
even more exact kind in Es blendete uns die Mondnacht
fragments of a life, from which Kurtg has created a collage, (The moonlit night dazzled us), the final fragment in the
all that we might have known of Kafka if Max Brod had done cycle, in which we find a pair of snakes crawling in the dust in
as he was asked? Literally a fragmentary life?
the moonlight. For snakes, says Sellars, read Kurtg and his
wife Marta. He and Marta did make it through. Two snakes
Perhaps Kafkas fragments are also Kurtgs fragments?
Peter Sellars reminds us that both writer and composer were that actually slithered under a fence they did crawl under a
fence and make it out. Its a marvellous, surreal Kafka image
heir to the great Jewish tradition of Mitteleuropa. And that
of two snakes in love. Its also a tender, daring, haunted
if Kafka somehow anticipates the logically irrational horror
tribute to his wife, whom he loved so much and you feel that
that befell that tradition in the middle of the 20th century,
Kurtg actually lived it. He was born in Romania but became in the music. Its just like an album of photos where you dont
know who these people are but you cant miss the simple
a Hungarian citizen, was 13 when the Second World War
humanity of it all. And what are snapshots in a photograph
began in Europe, lived and taught in Budapest under the
album but fragments of a life with family and friends, never
Soviet regime and only finally moved west after the
telling the whole story, and often lying as we smile for the
revolutions that ended the Cold War in 1989. Obviously
camera when anything but happy?
Kurtg was deeply influenced by Beckett and the idea
that what remains is fragmentary. It derives also from
Slept, woke, slept, woke,
miserable life.
Part 1 Fragment 11 and Part 3 Fragment 5
programme note
programme note
Keine Rckkehr
From a certain point on, there is no going back.
That is the point to reach.
Part 1 Fragment 16
Part 1
1 Die Guten gehn im gleichen Schritt
Die Guten gehn im gleichen Schritt.
Ohne von ihnen zu wissen,
tanzen die andern um sie die Tnze der Zeit.
3 Verstecke
Verstecke sind unzhlige, Rettung nur eine,
aber Mglichkeiten der Rettung wieder so
viele wie Verstecke.
Hiding places
There are countless hiding places, but only one salvation;
but then again, there are as many paths to salvation
as there are hiding places.
4 Ruhelos
Restless
5 Berceuse I
Schlage deinen Mantel, hoher Traum,
um das Kind.
Berceuse I
Wrap your overcoat, O lofty dream,
around the child.
6 Nimmermehr (Excommunicatio)
Nimmermehr, nimmermehr kehrst du wieder in die Stdte,
nimmermehr tnt die grosse
Glocke ber dir.
Nevermore (Excommunicatio)
Nevermore, nevermore, will you return to the cities,
nevermore will the great bell
resound above you.
9 Die Weissnherinnen
Die Weissnherinnen in den Regengssen.
The seamstresses
The seamstresses in the downpours.
10 Szene am Bahnhof
Die Zuschauer erstarren, wenn der Zug vorbeifhrt.
12 Meine Ohrmuschel
Meine Ohrmuschel fhlte sich frisch, rauh,
khl, saftig an wie ein Blatt.
My ear
My ear felt fresh to the touch, rough,
cool, juicy, like a leaf.
14 Umpanzert
Einen Augenblick lang fhlte ich mich umpanzert.
Enarmoured
For a moment I felt enarmoured.
15 Zwei Spazierstcke
(Authentisch-plagal)
Auf Balzacs Spazierstockgriff: Ich breche alle Hindernisse.
Auf meinem: Mich brechen alle Hindernisse.
Gemeinsam ist das alle.
Two walking-sticks
(Authentic-plagal)
On the stock of Balzacs walking-stick:
I surmount all obstacles. On mine: All obstacles
surmount me. They have that all in common.
16 Keine Rckkehr
Von einem gewissen Punkt an gibt es keine
Rckkehr mehr. Dieser Punkt ist zu erreichen.
No going back
From a certain point on, there is no going back.
That is the point to reach.
19 Nichts dergleichen
Nichts dergleichen, nichts dergleichen.
Part 2
1 Der wahre Weg
(Hommage-message Pierre Boulez)
Der wahre Weg geht ber ein Seil, das nicht
in der Hhe gespannt ist, sondern knapp ber
den Boden. Es scheint mehr bestimmt,
stolpern zu machen, als begangen zu werden.
Part 3
1 Haben? Sein?
Es gibt kein Haben, nur ein Sein, nur ein
nach letztem Atem, nach Ersticken verlangendes Sein.
To have? To be?
There is no to have, only a to be, a to be
longing for the last breath, for suffocation.
Coitus as punishment:
Canticulum Mariae Magdalenae
Coitus as punishment for the happiness of being together.
3 Meine Festung
Meine Gefngniszelle meine Festung.
My fortress
My prison-cell my fortress.
I am dirty, Milena
I am dirty, Milena, endlessly dirty,
that is why I make such a fuss about cleanliness.
None sings as purely as those in deepest hell;
it is their singing that we take for the singing of angels.
5 Elendes Leben
(Double)
Geschlafen, aufgewacht, geschlafen, aufgewacht,
elendes Leben.
Miserable life
(Double)
Slept, woke, slept, woke,
miserable life.
10
As tightly
As tightly as the hand holds the stone. It holds
it so tight only to cast it as far off as it can. Yet
even that distance the path will reach.
9 Verstecke
(Double)
Verstecke sind unzhlige, Rettung nur eine,
aber Mglichkeiten der Rettung wieder so
viele wie Verstecke.
Hiding places
(Double)
There are countless hiding places, but only one
salvation; but then again, there are as many
paths to salvation as there are hiding places.
10 Penetrant Jdisch
Im Kampf zwischen dir und der Welt
sekundiere der Welt.
Offensively Jewish
In the struggle between yourself and the world,
side with the world.
Scene on a tram
(1910: In a dream I asked the dancer Eduardowa if she
would kindly dance the Csrds once more )
The dancer Eduardowa, a music lover,
travels everywhere, even on the tram,
in the company of two violinists
whom she frequently calls upon to play.
For there is no ban on playing on the tram,
provided the playing is good,
it is pleasing to the other passengers,
and it is free of charge, that is to say,
the hat is not passed round afterwards.
However, it is initially somewhat surprising
and for a little while everyone considers it unseemly.
But at full speed, with a powerful current of air,
and in a quiet street, it sounds nice.
11
Part 4
1 Zu spt: 22 Oktober 1913
Zu spt. Die Sssigkeit der Trauer und der Liebe.
Von ihr angelchelt werden im Boot.
Das war das Allerschnste.
Immer nur das Verlangen, zu sterben und das Sich noch Halten,
das allein ist Liebe.
A long story
I look a girl in the eye,
and it was a very long love story
with thunder and kisses and lighting. I live fast.
5 Leoparden
Leoparden brechen in den Tempel ein
und saufen die Opferkrge leer:
das wiederholt sich immer wieder:
schliesslich kann man es vorausberechnen,
und es wird ein Teil der Zeremonie.
Leopards
Leopards break into the temple
and drink the sacrificial jugs dry;
this is repeated, again and again,
until it is possible to calculate in advance when they will come,
and it becomes part of the ceremony.
12
Again, again
Again, again, exiled far away, exiled far away.
Mountains, desert, a vast country to
be wandered through.
13
Dario Acosta
14
15
Programme produced by Harriet Smith; printed by Aldridge Print Group; advertising by Cabbell (tel. 020 8971 8450)
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16
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