Játékok (Hungarian: Games) is a collection of pedagogical performance pieces for piano (two hands and four hands), composed by György Kurtág since 1973, 8 Volumes as of 2010.
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It was to try to recapture something of the spirit of a child's play that Kurtág began the composition of Játékok - "Games". He started with a few ideas - set out in the foreword to the first four volumes:
| “ | “The idea of composing Játékok was suggested by children playing spontaneously, children for whom the piano still means a toy. They experiment with it, caress it, attack it and run their fingers over it. They pile up seemingly disconnected sounds, and if this happens to arouse their musical instinct they look consciously for some of the harmonies found by chance and keep repeating them.
Thus, this series does not provide a tutor, nor does it simply stand as a collection of pieces. It is possibly for experimenting and not for learning “to play the piano”. Pleasure in playing, the joy of movement - daring and if need be fast movement over the entire keyboard right from the first lessons instead of the clumsy groping for keys and the counting of rhythms - all these rather vague ideas lay at the outset of the creation of this collection. Playing is just playing. It requires a great deal of freedom and initiative from the performer. On no account should the written image be taken seriously but the written image must be taken extremely seriously as regards the musical process, the quality of sound and silence. We should trust the picture of the printed notes and let it exert its influence upon us. The graphic picture conveys an idea about the arrangement in time of the even the most free pieces. We should make use of all that we know and remember of free declamation, folk-music, parlando-rubato, of Gregorian chant, and of all that improvisational musical practice has ever brought forth. Let us tackle bravely even the most difficult task without being afraid of making mistakes: we should try to create valid proportions, unity and continuity out of the long and short values - just for our own pleasure! ” |
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Márta Kurtág and György Kurtág have performed an always-renewing selection of pieces for two and four hands, including transcriptions. The later volumes of Játékok bear the sub-title Diary Entries and Personal Messages. This, to some extent, reveals the lineage of the unique microcosms, which irresistibly involve the listener at their recitals.
Márta Kurtág and György Kurtág played a selection as part of the Composer's Portrait of the Rheingau Musik Festival, 8 August 2004, in the "Kulturforum Schillerplatz" (now "ESWE Atrium") Wiesbaden. The Bach transcriptions then interspersed with the miniature character pieces were Aus tiefer Not (BWV 687), Sonatina from Actus Tragicus, Trio sonata in E-flat major (BWV 525) and O Lamm Gottes (BWV 618).
The couple performed in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in February 2009.[1]