The World of Kurtág Miniatures: Brigitte Poulin and the Játékok

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In the 1980s, Montreal pianist Brigitte Poulin discovered the works of György Kurtág. As a 20-year-old student at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Poulin attended the contemporary music festival organized by Claudio Abbado in the Austrian capital, where a new Kurtág commission was being premiered.

“Since then, his music has been a part of my life,” she says. As borders gradually opened, Poulin travelled to Budapest to hear Kurtág’s works. Some years later, she performed his chamber music in Italy.

This fall, Poulin is releasing an album under the Leaf Music label dedicated to a collection of miniatures for solo piano called Játékok. Meaning “games” in Hungarian, these short works by Kurtág, spread across 10 volumes, were composed throughout his life. “The playful aspect is very present in the first four volumes, dating from the 1970s, where Kurtág uses graphic notation. It was a time when people experimented with drawings and the meaning they suggest in terms of sound and approach to the piano,” says Poulin.

Although the notation implies a range of interpretations, a sense of listening, responsiveness and proportions is necessary, she emphasizes. “Initially, he hadn’t written any time signatures or note duration. Each performer stretches time in their own way,” Poulin explains. In other cases, the notation is so detailed that duration is determined to the second, fermatas are written in different sizes, and dynamics range from five pianos to four or five fortes, she says.

Over the years, Kurtág’s writing has become more like a personal diary, interspersed with “birthday cards” and tributes to his wife Márta, their friends, and the composers he admired. “The performer must create imaginary dialogues, conversations, and arguments, because there are all sorts of suggestions, propositions, and characters in these works.”

For her album, Poulin has chosen about 50 Játékok, which she divided into five acts. “In the first act, there’s the audacity, the playful mischief of a child, as well as a confrontational side. In the second, I included tributes to [composer Farkas]Ferenc, who was a very close friend.” The third act is dedicated to Márta, while the fourth consists of tributes to Kurtág’s friends; the fifth contains the earliest pieces, dating from 1946 to 1947.

Faithful to Kurtág’s own vision, Poulin plans to incorporate these Játékok into her chamber music programs. “There’s a sense of space, of airiness to the listening experience when you hear Játékok peppered among other music,” she says.