Dedication: Botond Kocsis
Premiere location: Budapest
Premiere date: 1979.04.27.
Premiere performers: Mátyás Antal (piccolo); Erika Bereczki (trombone); Erzsébet Nagy (guitar)
Composition end date: 1978.11
Genre: Chamber Music
Instrumentation: piccolo, trombone, guitar
Duration (minutes): 7
Year of publication: 1981
Publisher: Editio Musica Budapest
Publication number: Z. 12020 – ISMN: M-080-12020-0
1 Fanfare in the manner of Mussorgsky
2 Hymn in the manner of Stravinsky
3 Scherzo
4 Nachtstück (В подполье c Федором Михайловичем) [Night piece – In the underworld with Fyodor Mikhailovich])
It is an instrumental work with no text.
In 1975, Kurtág composed a chamber piece for trombone, violin, and cello, and in 1976 he wrote a piece for trombone and piano titled “Nagy sirató” (Great Lament). He did not publish either of these works, nor did he publish the guitar pieces written in 1976–77 and cataloged under Op. 15. However, these two sources, the trombone and guitar pieces, inspired the occasional composition titled “Kis csáva” (Op. 15b), written for an unusual combination of instruments – piccolo, trombone, and guitar – which was presumably composed for the opening of a fine arts exhibition in 1978 (the manuscript bears the subtitle “For a comic exhibition”). The three seemingly mismatched instruments come together beautifully in Kurtág’s workshop. Three of the four movements are linked to Russian culture: the first movement recalls the opening of Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky, the second alludes to Stravinsky’s music, and the final movement – though its title (“Nachtstück”) might suggest Schumann – evokes the figure of Dostoevsky.
No sheet music files available for this piece.
Reviews of the World Premiere
Marianne Pándi’s Review
(Magyar Nemzet, May 5, 1979)
[…] György Kurtág composed his four-movement work A kis csáva for trombone, piccolo, and guitar. The aphoristic style characteristic of the composer’s latest creative period shone through brilliantly in the spot-on orchestration and abundance of rhythmic and melodic ideas: every note carries its own atmosphere, intriguing quality, weight, and significance that magically captivates the listener’s attention; although the title of the piece is not entirely clear, its unspoken subtitle – perhaps not entirely in keeping with the style – evokes Schumann: “The Poet Speaks.” The magnificent performance by Erika Bereczky, Erzsébet Nagy, and Mátyás Antal showed that this piece is a joy not only to listen to but also to perform. […]
(„Egy hét Budapest hangversenytermeiben”, Magyar Nemzet 35 [1979]/103, 4.)
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Review by Márta Sz. Farkas
(Program Booklet of the National Philharmonic, May 28, 1979)
The New Music Studio surprised the audience in the main hall of the Academy of Music with a varied program. Schoenberg’s Herzgewächse, a composition from the early 1910s, was presented as a “new” discovery, followed by Vidovszky’s Autokoncert, which had been written and premiered a few years earlier. The second part of the concert consisted of works by György Kurtág: A kis csáva, Op. 15/b – which may have been premiered in a concert hall in Budapest – as well as compositions from the series Games, some already familiar to the audience and others performed for the first time. […]
György Kurtág’s work A kis csáva may have posed a problem for listeners from its title alone. The composer did not explain what association he intended to evoke with the title of his composition. The dictionary, however, offers too many possible interpretations. “Csáva” can refer to the brine used to cure raw hides, the pit or container in which the brine is stored, the liquid used to clean seeds, the brine used to clean metal surfaces, slop, a slop bucket, or – especially in inflected forms – an unpleasant, awkward situation; thus, the listener may find themselves in “csáva”—“a little pickle” – and must decide which meaning to accept. The work itself is a brilliantly crafted composition, with ingenious moments in orchestration, compositional technique, and form unfolding one after another. The use of stylistic references from one or more decades earlier was certainly intentional. The question remains open: is this irony, an “hommage à,” a reminiscence, or simply the composer’s way of asking what’s next? The work was performed twice in succession by Erika Bereczky, Erzsébet Nagy, and Mátyás Antal, in accordance with a custom dating back decades.
(„Az új zenei stúdió hangversenye”, Országos Filharmónia Műsorfüzet [1979]/22, 31–32.)
No sheet music files available for this piece.
