Tre Pezzi ((Three Pieces) for violin and piano Op.14e (1979)

Öd und traurig (Desolate and Sad)

Vivo

Aus der Ferne: sehre leise, äusserst langsam (From a Distance: very quiet, extremely slow)

One of the most significant event in Kurtág’s development as a composer was his exposure to the music of Anton Webern when he was studying with Messiaen in Paris in 1957 and 1958. Webern – not least his canonic textures and its structural brevity – so fascinated him that, making copies of his scores, he absorbed an influence as potent that of Bartók, whose music he described as his “mother tongue.” It took a long time for the authentic personality to emerge but when it did, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it proved to be no less distinctive than that of his compatriot and contemporary Ligeti who, unlike Kurtág, had escaped from repressive Hungary after the revolution in 1956 to take refuge in more conditions more congenial for a progressive composer .

The miniaturist awakened in Kurtág by Webern’s example is evident in all but a few of his mature works, most of which are collections of pieces of just one or two minutes in length. The Tre Pezzi are characteristically brief but no less expressive for that. The desolate atmosphere of Öd und traurig derives from an uneasy tonal relationship, sustained over a central climax, as the violinist draws the bow on open strings over on a piano part with a five sharp key signature. The whispered violin harmonics opening the Vivo second movement are met by a ferocious piano and are replaced before the end by violent pizzicatos. Aus der Ferne begins pppp and becomes even quieter as its attenuated violin melody slowly and scarcely perceptibly approaches the closing bars.