Hudobný život 5/2023

Disclaimer: Please note that Hudobný život, the magazine mentioned in this text, is written in the Slovak language.

For non-Slovak readers who would like to read the printed or electronic version of the magazine, we recommend seeking out translation services or resources to help with understanding the content. One option may be to use online translation tools such as Google Translate or Microsoft Translator, although we cannot guarantee the accuracy of these services.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and we appreciate your interest in our publication.

• Olga Kroupová, a composer and sheet music editor at the renowned German publishing house Schott, talks about her work with Ligeti's scores.


• Norwegian jazz pianist Jon Balke visited Bratislava in May and had a conversation with Juraj Kalász - in the column.


• Analysis: Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra. Festivals: Allegretto 2023, Muzički biennale Zagreb, MaerzMusik Berlin.


• Short story by Vanda Rozenbergová about composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.


• Jazz Lab: Ľubomír Tamaškovič.

When asked about the message György Ligeti leaves to contemporary composers, composer and editor Oľga Kroupová responds that what she admires most about him is his humility: "He never considered himself great, he was, or rather became, great. Thanks to his unwavering will and strictness towards himself, with his creative dissatisfaction and passion, constant curiosity, and the endeavor to seek truth, that which surpasses him, which is not subject to human judgments and considerations." In an interview with composer and conductor Marián Lejava, she reveals the perspective from the materialized interior of Ligeti's music - from the musical score, through contact with the composer's manuscripts, as an editor who mediates the musical work to the most important link in the chain, the interpreter. It is a unique perspective - through a microscope, but also from above...

In the fifth edition of Hudobný život (Musical Life) this year, we have several opportunities to remind ourselves that a musical work does not arise in isolation, "out of nothing," and that the environment and circumstances in which the composer works have a tremendous impact on their poetics. An exemplary and representative example is, of course, György Ligeti. The Music Center recently made available on their YouTube channel a documentary series called Hudobníci o ôsmich slovenských skladateľoch (Musicians about Eight Slovak Composers), where Roman Berger, Miroslav Bázlik, Ladislav Kupkovič, Pavol Šimai, Juraj Hatrík, Vladimír Godár, Martin Burlas, and Ilja Zeljenka compose not only a mosaic of half a century of Slovak music but also of dramatic social and political upheavals in their narratives. And they let us catch a glimpse not only into their homes but also into their souls...

In this line, we can continue even if we browse through our music-analytical section, where Tamás Horkay elucidates Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra. This now famous work, created in painful contexts of the composer's emigration and health issues, amidst the sounds of war, whose explosions were heard even across the ocean... Looking from the title, Norwegian composer and pianist Jon Balke, briefly traveled to Slovakia to oversee the performance of his music, which will be heard in Bratislava and Bojnice in July. And even in the interview with Juraj Kalász, politics emerged. The Norwegian jazz musician is inspired by the multicultural influences of the contemporary world, the need for the West to cultivate its own creative soil. We read how Balke's rejection of military intervention in Iraq led to new musical projects that deviate from the narrower framework of jazz...

In short, we are living in another century of music and politics.