This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
Francais (French)
Montreal, October 17, 2023 – Bourgie Hall of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) presents the Ligeti Festival on Saturday, November 4 and Sunday, November 5, 2023, to mark the 100th anniversary of the celebrated Hungarian composer György Ligeti’s birth. The guest of honour will be the outstanding French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard.
Four events are planned for the Festival. On Saturday, November 4 at 2:30 p.m., musicologist Benjamin Levy, a professor at the University of California (Santa Barbara) and specialist on Ligeti, will present a lecture (in English and French) discussing the complex cultural phenomena that influenced the life and work of the celebrated composer. The lecture will be moderated by Jonathan Goldman, a professor at the Université de Montréal.
A concert will follow on Saturday, November 4 at 7:30 p.m., during which conductor Jean-Michaël Lavoie will lead musicians from the OSM in the Kammerkonzert. They will also perform Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles for wind quintet and the Trio for violin, horn and piano. As part of Bourgie Hall’s educational activities, Maestro Lavoie will also lead a group formed of talented students from the Schulich School of Music of McGill University and the Faculty of Music of the Université de Montréal, who will perform Ramifications with the Ligeti Quartet.
On Sunday, November 5 at 2:30 p.m., Bourgie Hall once again welcomes the exceptional Ligeti Quartet, acclaimed on the most prestigious stages. The quartet will present selections from Nouvelles Études, including the world premieres of two works by Nicole Lizée and Ana Sokolović respectively, commissioned in collaboration with Bourgie Hall, and the North American premiere of a work by Lukas Ligeti, son of the composer, as well as Ligeti’s string quartets Nos. 1 and 2.
On Sunday, November 5 at 6 p.m., the public is invited to a recital performed by the remarkable French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard. A peerless performer of contemporary music acclaimed worldwide for his flawless technique and great sensitivity, he will present a program intertwining Ligeti’s Musica ricercata and Beethoven’s Bagatelles, followed by etudes by Ligeti, Chopin and Debussy.
In conjunction with the Ligeti Festival, three of Stanley Kubrick’s films, whose soundtracks include excerpts of several works by Ligeti, will be screened at the Cinéma du Musée in their original English versions with French subtitles: Eyes Wide Shut on November 4 at 4 p.m.; 2001: A Space Odyssey on November 5 at 11:30 a.m.; and The Shining on November 5 at 8:20 p.m.
Click here for all details on the Ligeti Festival.
About Bourgie Hall
Inaugurated in September 2011, Bourgie Hall is a 462-seat concert hall at the heart of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Possessing exceptional acoustics, it has quickly made a name for itself as one of Canada’s most beloved venues for concert music. Located in the nave of the former Erskine and American Church, its spectacular architecture includes a collection of twenty Tiffany stained glass windows that is unique in the country. Bourgie Hall presents over a hundred concerts a year in various musical styles, ranging from jazz to classical works, from Baroque music to contemporary creations. Its high-calibre programming features some of the most prominent Canadian and international musicians of their generation, whether they be at the beginning of their careers or already well established. bourgiehall.ca
This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
Francais (French)
