ALL THE INTERPRETATIONS ON THIS CD HAVE BEEN SUPERVISEDBY THE COMPOSER.THE RECORDINIGSHAVE IN EVERY CASE BEEN AUTHORIZED BY THE COMPOSER. THE "DOUBLE CONCERTO'' AND "SAI{ FRANCISCO POLY- PHONY'' WERE RECORDED AT A LIVE PERFORMANCE. Gyiirgy Ligeti & Liisa Pohjola Gydrgy Ligeti, whose parents were Hungarians of Jewish origin, was born on 28th May 1923 in the prouincial town of Dicsdszentm|rton (Diciosanmartin) in Transyluaniawhich had since the end of world war I beenpart of Romania. He spent his school years in CIui (Kolozsudr,Klausenburg) where he matricu- lated in 1941 and where he studied at the conseruatory with Ferenc Farhas (1g41 43). During the summersof 1942 and 1943 he receiuedpriuate tuition his studies at the from P6l Kadosain Budapest. After the war he continued Budapest Music High school with Farhas, s|ndor veress and Pdl JLrdanyi as as teachers.After his examination in 1950 he was employed there himself a teacherof harmony, counterpoint and structurol analysis' SincetherisinginHungaryinlgs6LigetihasliuedinWesternEurope, Radio's and he is now an Austrian citizen. In 1957-58he worlted at cologne greater part of the 1960she studio for electrophonic music and during the Music wasactiue as a guestlecturer at the Darmstadt courses,the stockholm High school and elsewhere.Ligeti liued in Berlin from 1969-71, the first he ynl, o, a guestfellow of DAAD's "Berliner Ki'instlerprogramm"' In 1972 was uisiting professor at stanford (Jniuersity in california and in 1973 he assumed hispresent position as professor of composition at the High school for Music in Hamburg. Ligeti,s music has uon him seueralimportant international awards,among otheis the City of Bonn's Beethouen Prize in 1967. As early as 1964 he was made a member of the swedish Royal Academy of Music. He is also a mem- ber of the Alzademie der Kiinste in Berlin and the Freie Akademie der Kiinste in Hamburg. since 1971 he has been uice-presidentof the Austrian seclion of ISCM. Gyc;rgy Ligeti, der Sohn ungarisch-jiidischerEltern, wurde am 28. Mai jg2J in der nach dem ersten weltkrieg rumcinischenProuinzstadt Dicscjszentmdrton (Diciosdnmartin) in Transyluaniengeboren. Seine Schulzeit uerbrachteer in Cluj (Kolozsu6r, Klausenburg), uo er sein Abitur lglj machte. 1941-1J studierte er am Konseruatorium bei Ferenc Farhas:wcihrend der Sommermo- nate 1942 und 1943 erhielt er auch priuaten Unterricht in Budapest, und ztuar bei Pdl Kadosa. Nach dem Krieg setzte er seine Studien an der X[usih- Itochschule in Budapest bei Farkas, Sdndor Veress und Pdt Jdrdanl,i fort und wurde nach abgelegtemExamen 1gS0 dort selbst Lehrer in Harmonre, Ko ntrapunkt und Formenanalyse. Seit der ungarischenReuolte 1g56 lebt Ligeti in Westeuropaund ist nun- mehr dsterreichischer Staatsangehdriger.1g5Z-SB wer er Ilitarbeiter am Studio des Kcilner Rundfunhs auf dem Gebiete elektrophortischerMusik und. wcihrend der 1960er Jahren wirlete er meistens als Gastuortragenderu.a. bei den Darmstadtkursen und an der fuIusikhochschulein Stockholm. j969-21 war Ligeti in Westberlin ansiissig,das erste Jahr als Stipendiat des DAADs ,,Berliner Kiinstlerprogramms". 1972 war er wiihrend eines SemestersGast- professor an der Uniuersitiit Stanford in Kalifornien. tg73 trat er seme jetzige stelle als Professorfi.ir Komposition an der Musihhochschule in Ham- burg an. Fiir seine Musik hat Ligeti mehrere bedeutende internationale Auszeich- nungenerhallen, u.a. den Beethouenpreisder Stadt Bonn jg67. Schon jg64 usurde er fuIitglied der Kgl. schwedischenMusikakademie; er ist auch Mit- glied der Akademie der Kiinste in Berlin und der Freien Akad.emieder Kiinste in Hamburg. seit 1971 ist Ligeti vizeprcisidentder c)sterreichischensehtion cler ISCM. Gy\rgy Ligeti est nd te 28 mai 1923 de parents hongrois d'origine iuiue de la uille de prouince Dics6szentm|rton (Diciosanmartin) en Transyluanie, rdgion appartenant d la Roumanie depuis Ia fin de la premiare guerre mondiale. Il alta d l'6cole d ctui (Kotozsudr, Klausenburg) oi il passason baccalaurdat en 1941 et, de 1941 d 43, il dtudia au conseruatoireauec Ferenc Farhas; Iesdttis de 1942 et 43, it regut un enseignementpriud de P6l Kadosa d Budapest. Aprds la gueffe, il poursuiuit des dtudes d I'EcoIe Supdrieure de Musique de Budapest auec Farhas, Sandor Veress et Pdt Jdrdanyi comme professeurs; aprds son examen en 1950, il y deuint lui-m€me professeur en harmonie, contrepoint et analyseformelle. Depuis la rduolution hongroiseen 1956,Ligeti a udcu en Europe de I'ouest et est maintenant citoyen autrichien. De 1957 d 58, il fut collaborateur au stud.iode musique dlectrophonique de la Radio de cologne et, dans la ma- jeure partie des annties 60, iI fut inuitd rdgulidrement comme confdrenuer aux cours de Darmstad entre autres et d I'EcoIe Supdrieurede Musique de stockhotm. De 1969 d 71, Ligeti utjcut d Berlin-ouest, la premiare annde comme boursier du t Berliner Kilnstlerprogramm t du D.A.A.D';en 1972, cali' il fut professeur inuitt! pendant un semestre d I'uniuersitd stanford en fornie; en 1973, il entra dans sesfonctions de professeurd I'Ecole supdrieure de Musique de Hambourg, poste qu'il occupe encore aujourd'hui. La misique cle Ligeti lui mdrita plusieursdistinctions internationalesd'im- de Bonn en 1967. En -1g64.portance, entre autres le Prix Beethouen de la uille il deuenait ddid membre de I'Acaddmie Royale de Musique de sudde; il est dgalement membre de I'Ahademie der Kiinste d Berlin et de la Freie Ahademie der Ki)nste d Hambourg. Depuis 1971, Ligeti est uice-prdsidentde Ia section autrichiennede I'ISCM' Gytirgy Ligeti:"During the secondhalf of the sixtiesI graduallyaltered my musicalstyle. While du ring the late f if ties my musicwas based primar- ilyon "micropolyphony",a technique in whichthe parts (both instrumen- tal and vocal)are very denselyinterwoven and crowdedtogether, from aboutthe middleof the sixtieslsought a moretransparent polyphony, moreclearly delineated, thinner and sparser. The static, self-erazing web becamemore illuminated;divergent, heterogeneous and contrasting musicalr:rotion nestled its way intothe complexnerwork of sound. Typicalof this new,more transparent,polyphony are the Ten piecesfor wind Quintet(1968) and the chamber concerto for 13 lnstrumentalists (1 969-70). I wenta stepf u rther with the orchestral work M e lod i en (I 971) ; the partswere formed as enclosedmelodic f iguresand a numberof tnese verydifferent single parts sound simultaneouity ort atdifferent tempi and withvaried rhythmic articulation. The Double concerto (1971-72) for solo flute (alsoalto fluteand oass flute), solo oboe and orchestra has two movements. The f irst movement is slowand restrained;the secondstarts with gentle undulations and gra- duallyrises to an insaneprestissimo requiring tremendous virtuosity. While the harmonicand melodicstructure ol Ihe ChamberConcerto and Melodien is based on the equal-temperedchromatic scale of 12 notes,in the DoubleConcerto I havemade extensive use of micro-inrer- vals:not exactquarter-tones, but deviations,derived f romjust intonation, of the twelvenotetempered scale. By employingspecial fingering and blowingtechniques the woodwind instruments in particularcan produce a largenumber of differentiatedmicrotones; incidentally, the tone-colour willalso vary with the deviations in pitch. In the firstmovement, which is slow,I haveattempted to introducea newtype of harmonywhich is neither chromatic nor diatonic but occuo- resan intermediate,fluctuating position. Not only do thetwo soloists pray micro-intervals,but in the orchestrathe woodwindinstruments oreo- ominate,and their parts are scored in microtones,The overall imoression createdby the musicis of greatbrightness and clarity - ratherless so in thef irst movement, in whichthe solo flautist plays f irst the alto flute and thenthe bassf lute;but these charateristics are very marked in the lastpart of thesecond movement, which requires great virtuosity; the musicglit- tersas thoughdeep f rozenand movesas stiffly as a puppet. SanFrancisco Polyphony (1973-74) can beseen as the f inalproduct of a stylisticdevelopment stretching lrom wind Quintetto Melodien.The new polyphonyis worked out with the strictestconsequence. Whiletheearlier orchestraiwork Metodienis delicate,beautif ul music,San Francisco Pol- yphonyis drier, sparser and the melodic line is more graphical. The diver- gence-ofthe individualmelodic lines is even greater, their degree of har- monic amalgamationis lower.In both Melodienand SanFrancisco Poly' phonythere is an overlyingstructure, a planof the intervalsand harmony, that ordersthe heterogeneousparts like a speciesof magneticfield (the melodiesare heterogeneous but nevertheless wind theirway more or less into each other and are governedby a structureof intervalswhich itself changesin the courseof the piece);but in SanFrancisco Polyphonythe divergencebetween the melodiclines is strongerthan the convergent harmonicorder. An exchangetakes place between order and chaos.The individualmelodic lines and figuresare enclosedand orderedwithin themselves;their combination,both simultaneousand successlve'ls chaotic.In the overlyingstructure, in thegoverning form of the musical events,order f inally reasserts itself . One can imaginevarious obiects in a stateof totaldisarray in a drawer.The drawertoo hasa definite form. In- sideit chaosreigns, but it isclearly def ined itself ." The works which have made Gy6rgy Ligeti one of the most important and influentialof contemporarycomposers - and one of the mostfre- quentlyperformed, even at "traditional"concerts - haveall beenwritten sincehe fled