This is an important release of late music by the Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag. The title work, “Signs, Games and Messages,” an open-ended collection of pieces for three strings, is framed by two song cycles for baritone, with and without instrumental accompaniment. The “greater concentration and attention to the essentials” with which the annotator characterizes Kurtag’s present style is shown by the timings: There are 59 tracks in all, none much longer than three minutes. Thus the silences separating these tiny pieces are to be heard as music, too, much as with the poetry of Samuel Beckett that makes up the song cycle “Pas a pas — nulle part.”
Kurtag employs a sometimes atonal, expressionistic language to say exactly what he needs to say, no more, not unlike the very different music of Anton Webern. The ongoing set of “Signs, Games and Messages” uses a string trio both individually and collectively to portray a variety of elemental moods through different string techniques. The song cycles — “Hoelderlin-Gesaenge” for baritone solo and the Beckett cycle for baritone, string trio and percussion — compress a universe of feeling into 40 pungent miniatures ranging in mood from comic to sorrowful. This music is not for everyone, and is best heard in small doses. But listeners with open ears and minds will discover one of the great originals of contemporary music. Expert performances and recording too.
