Peter Eötvös

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Peter Eötvös conducting. Photo © Istvan Huszti.

Peter Eötvös (born January 2, 1944) is a Hungarian composer and conductor.

Peter Eötvös was born in Odorheiu Secuiesc/Székelyudvarhely in the Transylvanian region of Romania. He studied composition in Budapest and Cologne. From 1962, he composed for film in Hungary. Eötvös played regularly with the Stockhausen Ensemble between 1968 and 1976. In 1979, he replaced Pierre Boulez as the Musical Director and conductor of Ensemble InterContemporain, the virtuosic resident ensemble of the IRCAM in Paris. He left that post in 1991.

Eötvös's music shows the influence of a variety of composers. As director of Ensemble InterContemporain, he was exposed to many exotic and respected samples of concert music, as is evidenced in the variety of timbres and sound-worlds within his music. Extended techniques such as over-pressure bowings coexist with lyrical folk songs, and synthesized sounds. Eötvös also is technologically competent, and provides detailed instructions on how to mic instruments for electronic manipulation or amplification. His first larger scale compositions were for film. This often reflects on his later pieces in moments of atmospheric airiness. Two of his compositions for orchestra and voice, Atlantis and Ima, were inspired by Sándor Weöres' poem Néma zene, which provides the libretto of these pieces.

In conducting Eötvös is meticulous like Boulez, and brings out many of the minutia of a score. At the same time, Eötvös's interpretations seem to differ significantly from Boulez's. While Boulez is known for cooler expression and a focus on sonorities, Eötvös's interpretations are more dramatic, but without a loss of control.