Ligeti was at the heart of progressive movements in classical composition in Europe from the 1960s onwards, but in this book I examined his work through the frame of his earlier Hungarian influences. I dug out numerous sources from communist-era archives, demonstrating the machinery of artistic censorship and Ligeti’s enmeshed Read more…
My first book was commissioned for Ashgates ‘Landmarks in Music Since 1950’ series. It focuses on a piece of music composed in 1960s Hungary, still today uncompromisingly tough to listen to, even while it was rejected as ‘too 19th-century’ when it was premiered, in 1968, at the hothouse of progressive Read more…
In January 1996 I was selected to play at London’s Purcell Room in the Park Lane Group concert series for young artists. I combined short pieces by György Kurtág, with whom I had studied, with a newly-commissioned work by the Hungarian László Tihanyi, in whose Ensemble Intermodulation I had performed. The largest-scale Read more…
While living and studying in Budapest 1992-1995 I built up a repertoire of Hungarian music, much of it contemporary. I was happy to work with several composers – most intensively with Kurtag, but also with Laszlo Tihanyi (in his ensemble Intermodulation, and also on a solo piece he wrote for Read more…
In January 1995 I put together a piano recital for Bartok Radio, with a programme that was highly unusual for Hungary. I started and finnished with 3 pieces from Olivier Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’enfant-Jésus, played the Piano Sonata by Aaron Copland in the middle and – for a local Read more…
I have worked in full-time academic teaching since 2000, when I began as a lecturer at the University of Bristol. I was Professor of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London until September 2019, and now I am Professorial Research Associate at SOAS, University of London. My teaching has ranged Read more…