Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.At just over a year from his 100th birthday, György Kurtág presides over musical life from his apartment above the Budapest Music Centre. He is still composing and says that his Beckett-inspired opera Fin de partie may yet acquire further scenes.After a wide search, baritone Benjamin Appl was chosen by Kurtág to perform his Hölderlin-Gesänge in 2019. The result was a close working friendship between singer and composer, a “stern self-critic” and “unpretentious intellectual” (in Appl’s words), that has led to this recording.The performance of the six Hölderlin-Gesänge is the deserving centrepiece of the programme. These are typical Kurtág miniatures, mostly with no accompaniment, and do not waste a single note. In setting Hölderlin’s pithy, mystical texts Kurtág has responded with wisps of lyrical beauty, suppressing occasional outbursts of angst — a compelling short cycle. There are seven other Kurtág songs, five of them recorded for the first time. Appl reports that the recording sessions took 12 days and more than 1,300 takes to satisfy Kurtág’s desire for perfection. Just remember that when listening to the chant-like simplicity of “Circumdederunt” or the concentrated epigrams of his Ulrike Schuster settings, the latter accompanied by Pierre-Laurent Aimard.Alongside are seven songs by Schubert and one by Brahms, beautifully sung by Appl and two of them accompanied, with generous pedalling, by Kurtág himself. The recording ends with an 18-minute conversation in German between Appl and Kurtág (translations provided), which will surely acquire historic value.★★★★☆‘Schubert and Kurtág: Lines of Life’ is released by Alpha Classics
