AltalenaNew Music Days

In December 1956, shortly after the Hungarian Revolution was crushed, György Ligeti left Budapest. Behind him was a musical world shaped by Bartók, Transylvanian folk music, and the artistic restrictions of postwar Hungary. Among the works he took with him was Musica ricercata, composed between 1950 and 1953 — music that already anticipated the radical imagination that would later make Ligeti one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.

Beginning with almost nothing — a single pitch gradually expanding into an entire chromatic universe — Musica ricercata reveals Ligeti’s fascination with musical systems, rhythm, and perception. His ideas would resonate far beyond Europe, influencing generations of composers and reaching an unexpectedly wide audience through the films of Stanley Kubrick.

Our concert places this music in dialogue with works by Christopher Cerrone, Máté Bella, and Dániel Dobri, tracing a line from Ligeti’s Budapest experiments to the vibrant new-music landscape of New York today.

The Ask the Composer! talk-show series has become a distinctive platform for contemporary classical music in Hungary, with a growing international presence since its launch in 2021. Over the past seasons, the series has appeared at several major European venues, including the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Grand Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest.

Now, the interactive concert-talk format arrives in New York City, offering audiences a wide-ranging introduction to different generations and stylistic approaches within contemporary Hungarian and American composition.

During these unique evenings, the concert stage transforms into a living musical laboratory, where audiences are invited to actively engage with composers’ ideas, inspirations, and creative processes.

On September 26, 1945, Béla Bartók passed away at Mount Sinai West Hospital in New York City.

The final chapter of his life is well known: on October 8, 1940, he gave his farewell concert in Budapest at the Liszt Academy. The story reads like the plot of an adventure film: the hero, before setting off, entrusts the complete and carefully archived collection of Hungarian folk music to Zoltán Kodály for safekeeping — he knows he must leave. For years, he has felt he cannot live under the rising tide of fascism.

After a long voyage by ship, Bartók and his wife, Ditta Pásztory, arrived in New York on October 30, 1940. The last five years of his life, spent in the United States, were marked by hardship — both financial and emotional. Yet, as often happens, this was also a period of extraordinary artistic creativity, during which he composed some of the most profound and original works of his career.

Our special event reflects on Bartók’s remarkable life, presenting his music alongside works by Hungarian and American composers from the century.

The Ask the Composer! talk-show series has become a distinctive platform for contemporary classical music in Hungary, with a growing international presence since its launch in 2021. Over the past seasons, the series has appeared at several major European venues, including the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Grand Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest.

Now, the interactive concert-talk format arrives in New York City, offering audiences a wide-ranging introduction to different generations and stylistic approaches within contemporary Hungarian and American composition.