Recollections of the teaching of György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados

“Most regrettably”, when I started to study with Kurtág in 1967, not only did I not have a camera but not even a tape-recorder! Later, having studied in Germany for three years, I bought myself a tape-recorder  there, and I wanted to record his lessons. “Absolutely out of the question!” he said. He later changed in this regard, fortunately, but I had moved away from Hungary by that time.

For me Rados was a colossal, decisive character. I really loved all his acts – even when it was sadistic, because sometimes he could lash out rather hard. One thing is certain, though: in time I always had to admit that he was right.

Kurtág was different: he “scourged” us in other ways. If you asked me which of them was easier to put up with, I couldn’t choose. But no matter how cruel Rados could be, I most definitely have never cried during his class — with Kurtág, however, it happened several times that I could not hold back my tears. And he was right too.

Whenever Márta was preparing for a concert, she always played the programme for me — we practically prepared for her shows together. I felt that I knew what she needed for everything to turn out as best as possible, hence we worked together all the time. Gyuri would notice the results and he trusted me immensely: he knew that whatever I heard or said had weight to it. That’s how I ended up being his assistant in all sorts of masterclasses many times. First I was just listening in on his classes, soaking up every single word he uttered, all his musical concepts. His students, however, were frequently unable to implement what Kurtág was asking of them. After one of the lessons I told him that I could make them understand all the things he was teaching them during the morning. I spent the afternoon with them, and the next day Kurtág was happy to see that the students could execute what he had imagined. And so, I went on to frequently attended his courses — I enjoyed that I knew exactly what needed to be done, and even more so that I was able to make his job easier.