György Ligeti, les Quatuors

[:fr]György Ligeti, enfant, dessine sur un cahier les cartes d’un monde imaginaire. Il se cache dans le grenier pour lire des contes, une vieille horloge égrène son tic-tac, les toiles d’araignées forment des labyrinthes jolis et mortels. Il s’entraîne sur le vieux piano paternel, il découvre les symphonies de Beethoven, sur le chemin du conservatoire il entend les musiques tziganes qui s’échappent des tavernes. Il aime ces deux musiques, l’une savante l’autre populaire, elles ne s’opposent pas et se répondent harmonieusement ou comiquement dans son esprit. Le petit György rêve.

Plus tard, il est jeune compositeur, le régime politique de son pays se durcit, la culture est mise sous tutelle et les inventions ou trouvailles musicales sont proscrites, la nouveauté est l’ennemie du peuple. Bartók, le maître tant admiré s’enfuit puis meurt en exil.

Ligeti est contraint d’écrire de la musique dans un style officiel, cela se résume le plus souvent à arranger des thèmes traditionnels pour diverses formations. II écrit en secret des œuvres plus ambitieuses et nouvelles.

En 1956, après avoir subi le joug du nazisme puis du soviétisme, Ligeti, au péril de sa vie, s’enfuit. De l’autre côté du mur, il écrit enfin comme il l’entend. Il découvre le monde immense, les musiques extra-européennes, électroniques, rock, free-jazz, entendues jusque-là à travers les ondes brouillées des radios clandestines…

Progressivement, les influences musicales se réconcilient à nouveau dans son esprit et dans son cœur, et du fin fond de sa mémoire ressurgit son cher monde imaginaire. Il s’y réfugie souvent et il n’est pas rare d’entendre dans ses œuvres un violoniste tzigane qui aurait été initié à la musique des Pygmées Aka, une valse liquide montée sur ressorts, ou une fanfare de klaxons perdue au milieu d’une fable gothique. Ligeti disparaît en 2006, nous laissant une œuvre essentielle et l’image d’un homme libre, attentif aux mouvements du monde.

Programme

György LIGETI, « Métamorphoses Nocturnes », Quatuor no. 1
György LIGETI, Quatuor no. 2
György LIGETI, Sonate pour violoncelle solo

Création

Vendredi 29 mai 2009, L’Atelier du Plateau

Sortie du disque

Novembre 2013, AEON/OUTHERE

Médias

Revue de presse (PDF)
Disque
Musique

Tournée

Ce concert s’est joué à L’Atelier du Plateau, Paris, la Comédie de Clermont Ferrand, l’Agence Culturelle de Dordogne Périgord, L’Espace Malraux – Scène Nationale de Chambéry,  le Théâtre de la Croix Rousse …

    [:en]As a child, György Ligeti drew maps of an imaginary world in a notebook. He hid in the attic to read fairytales, the tick-tock of an old clock marking the time, spider webs forming pretty, mortal labyrinths.

    He practiced on the old paternal piano, discovered Beethoven’s symphonies, and on the road to the conservatory, heard gypsy music wafting from taverns. He liked these two types of music, one highbrow, the other popular, which did not conflict, answering each other harmoniously or comically in his mind. Little György dreamt. Later on, he was a young composer. The political regime of his country tightened; culture was placed under supervision, and musical inventions or brainwaves were proscribed; novelty was the enemy of the eople. Bartók, the master so admired, fled and later died in exile. Ligeti was forced to write music in an official style, which most often came down to arranging folk tunes for diverse nsembles. In secret, he wrote new, more ambitious works. In 1956, after having been subjected to the yokes of Nazism and then Communism, Ligeti fled at the risk of his life. From he other side of the Wall, he was finally able to write as he saw fit. He discovered a vast world of music – extra-European, electronic, rock, free-jazz – heretofore heard only on the crambled waves of clandestine radios… Progressively, the musical influences were again reconciled in his heart and soul, and from the depths of his memory suddenly appeared his ear imaginary world. He often sought refuge in it, and it is not rare to hear in his works a gypsy violinist who apparently initiated him in the music of the Aka Pygmies, a spring- ounted liquid waltz, or a fanfare of klaxons lost in a Gothic fable.

    Ligeti died in 2006, leaving us an essential oeuvre and the image of a free man, attentive to the movements of the world. Q. Béla

    Translated by John Tyler Tuttle

    All Music
    The Béla Quartet has put enormous effort into these performances of Ligeti’s string quartets, and the virtuoso performances are as fresh and vital as they are compelling. Blair Sanderson

    Audiophilia.com
    Named for the century’s greatest Hungarian, Bela Bartok, Quatuor Bela was formed specifically to play this music and the bleak, spartan intensity of their reading is completely convincing. Where the Casals Quartet smooth off the rough edges and angularities, Quatuor Bela hone them to razor sharpness. (…) 

    For those with a particular interest in this music, these carefully researched and heartfelt performances will have special appeal.  AF

    Gramophone
    The abandon with which the Bélas dig into their strings at the beginning of the First Quartet – just listen to them go ! – tells us we’re in for gutsy, soulful playing. Philip Clark

    Music web international
    Aeon’s audio is excellent. In fact, in engineering terms it arguably beats all competition. (…). In purely musical terms, the Quatuor Béla’s Ligeti ranks with the best – and perhaps even higher. Byzantion

    Q2 Music Album of the Week for March 3, 2014
    The ensemble is in astounding command of the music, retaining an extraordinary on-edge energy even during quiet moments (the dynamic the most defines the composition).

     

    Programm

    György LIGETI, « Métamorphoses Nocturnes », String quartet no. 1
    György LIGETI, String quartet no. 2
    György LIGETI, Sonata for solo cello

    Premiere

    May 29, 2009, L’Atelier du Plateau (Paris)

    Release

    November 2013, AEON/OUTHERE

    Média

    Press cuts (PDF)
    To listen

    Venues

    This programme was premiered in Paris (Atelier du Plateau).  It was subsequently performed in Clermont-Ferrand (La Comédie), Agence Culturelle de Dordogne Périgord, Chambéry (Espace Malraux – Scène Nationale), Lyon (Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse), Bourges (Maison de la Culture), Festival des Quatuors en Pays de Fayence, Tarbes (Le Parvis), Angers (Château) and also toured Colombia. 

    A new variation of Ligeti’s Métamorphoses Nocturnes, Lüne 3000, will be presented near Paris, at Le Triton, and in Grenoble for the festival ‘Les Détours de Babel’, together with jazz musicians, pianist Roberto Negro and saxophonist Emile Parisien.


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