Signs, Games and Messages

"Every note he writes is essential. There is never any sense of small talk. For him, only truth matters, only what is essential: you can never lie when making music." — Heinz Holliger, oboist, composer and longtime friend of György Kurtág In 2026, György Kurtág, one of the last towering figures of twentieth-century music, celebrates his hundredth birthday. SPECTRA marks the occasion with a unique tribute centred on Signs, Games and Messages—his ever-evolving cycle of musical aphorisms, distilled to their very essence. Kurtág's music is placed in dialogue with that of the composers who shaped his artistic imagination—Johann Sebastian Bach, Anton Webern, Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály—as well as with works by twenty-first-century composers who continue to draw inspiration from his extraordinary musical legacy. The programme begins with the iconic Aria from Bach's Goldberg Variations. From there, it unfolds through solos, duos, trios and a newly commissioned work for quartet before returning, at the very end, to the same Aria. Heard again after this musical journey, it resonates with a renewed depth and quiet inevitability.