Bard Music West - The World of György Ligeti

Through one mind, a universe of music.

Join us on March 17 and 18 for Bard Music West’s inaugural festival, The World of György Ligeti, and explore the eclectic music and influences of the brilliant Hungarian composer whose revolutionary works became famous through the films of Stanley Kubrick. Encounter Transylvanian folk music, absurdist theater, monumental choral works, a world premiere, and some of Ligeti’s most stunning compositions.

Single tickets are only $25 online. Discount packages available for the full festival and Marathon Saturday (all Saturday events). Enjoy beer from Lagunitas Brewing Company with your ticket purchase!

https://www.bardmusicwest.org

See the full schedule here: https://www.bardmusicwest.org/2017events


7:30pm, Friday March 17
Program One: Hungarian Roots

Explore Ligeti’s Hungarian Jewish origins and rhythmic influences, from Béla Bartók to the folk music of Transylvania.

György Ligeti: Musica ricercata for solo piano
Transylvanian folk music
Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 2, Sz. 67
Ligeti: Cello Sonata
Sierra: Songs from the Diaspora for soprano, piano, and string quartet


3pm, Saturday March 18
Meet the Composer

Join us for a short talk about György Ligeti and a discussion and Q&A with our Composer in Residence Luna Pearl Woolf. Multidisciplinary scholar and radio host Francesco Spagnolo is speaker and moderator!

4pm, Saturday March 18
Program Two: Modern Times, Dreams of the Absurd

Experience ideas that fascinated Ligeti throughout his life: theatricality, absurdity, and the mechanical devices of modern society. Includes a world-premiere, Samuel Beckett, dazzling piano etudes, Romantic chamber music, and much more!

Robert Schumann: Märchenerzählungen (Fairy tales) for clarinet, viola, and piano
Reading: Short stories by Gyula Krúdy
György Ligeti: Mysteries of the Macabre—Three arias from Le grande macabre
Film: Scenes from Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times
Ligeti: Continuum for solo harpsichord
Samuel Beckett and Luna Pearl Woolf: Act Without Words I and world-premiere
Ligeti: Études for Piano (selections)


8pm, Saturday March 18th
Program Three: Musical Eternity

The festival ends with a celebration of Ligeti that juxtaposes the magisterial with the minute, featuring San Francisco’s premier new music chorus, Volti. Trace the vast range of Ligeti’s influences from 15th-century choral music to California minimalism. Become a performer in our participatory adaptation of Ligeti’s mind-blowing Poéme Symphonique for mobile phone metronomes. Volti ends the festival with the otherworldly soundscape of Lux Aeterna of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame.

Johannes Ockeghem: Marian Motets for a cappella chorus
György Ligeti: Sonata for Viola
Ligeti: Poéme Symphonique, adapted for mobile phone metronomes
Lukas Ligeti: Excerpts from Time for violin and piano
Terry Riley: Keyboard Study No. 2 for solo piano
György Ligeti: Lux aeterna for a cappella chorus