A Young Classical

He worked with renown conductors and ensembles all over the world. He was an organizer and artistic leader of joint projects of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music and the New York based Juilliard School of Music. He is a composer, conductor and musician, taking his business seriously, while taking life lightheartedly. Meet Balázs Horváth.

Last year you were chosen to be one of the students of the International Ensemble Modern Academy. What did this mean to you?

The Ensemble Modern is one of the most prominent contemporary ensembles. The IEMA is an academy that gives out scholarships to young composers, musicians, and conductors to work and study with the ensemble for a while. This helps young artists have a presence in the international music scene. I know several 30-something composers from different corners of the world who have partaken in the course and have serious credentials in the international music scene. It is also a huge experience to compose for musicians for whom nothing is impossible to play, and who sternly, sometimes judgmentally and with revisions, but through lighthearted rehearsals, learned and performed my first composition. The two weeks I spent with them wasn’t just full of high caliber work, wasn’t just about professional advancement and development, but also about seeing how all this is done with natural professionalism.

You’ve taken part in both national and international competitions. Have you sensed any difference regarding the state of organization, conception, implementation, consideration or recognition?

Regarding organization and conception, Hungarian competitions are in a good state. Even though we’re lagging behind foreign competitions in two aspects. Firstly, it is very rare for an international composer competition to be held inHungary. Even the New Hungarian Music Forum, one of the standouts of Hungarian grants, is admittedly looking to support Hungarian composers. The second problem is that there is little international influence inHungary, and this also applies to considerations in competitions. Our contemporary music scene is still far too inbred. This is one of the reasons why Hungarian classical music abroad centers around three composers (György Ligeti, György Kurtág and Péter Eötvös), who themselves spend or have spent a large part of their time abroad. When one of my compositions is played abroad, I usually sit there feeling that my work fits into a cultural milieu, something I feel far less at home. I don’t think a foreign first performance is worth more musically. But of course I was filled with a different inner tension when I conducted one of my compositions in the Rudolfinum inPrague, or when the aforementioned Ensemble Modern was performing one of my works.

In 2009, together with 6 other young musicians you founded a band THReNSeMBle which specializes in performing contemporary music, and mainly showcases the works of young composers. Did you create a new demand with this or did you fill a gap?

There are loads of contemporary ensembles abroad, but fortunately, there are several such groups here inHungary. None of them have serious infrastructure, constant backing, or plans for a few years ahead of course, which is a sad fact. What really distinguishes  THReNSeMBle is that we mainly perform the works of the youngest generation, and it is important for us to work with the composers. So we all learn something from each other. We also differ from the fast-consumed international etudes in that we perform the learned works at least two or three times. Needless to say that by the third performance the production is much more fully-fledged. And of course the members like to improvise, and so we perform improvisational works as often as we can.

In many cases, you gather inspiration from literary works. Is the connection between literature and music important to you?

I’m inspired by contemporary writings when they contain words, structures, taste, or lingual style that remind me of my music’s acoustic world. However, I find myself more and more looking for texts for content or concept, instead of being inspired by a specific text. This was the case with one of my works titled Through Men’s Eyes /Through Women’s Eyes, which is a song-cycle incorporating the texts of Krisztina Tóth, Dániel Varró, and János Háy among others, which were collected and organized around the theme of love. But an act of nature or different type of music can be just as inspiring for me. These days it’s mostly some popular music or jazz.

What major debuts, recordings, publications can we expect from you in 2012?

I’m working on a new orchestral composition which the organizers of the Bartók Festival in Szombathelyhave commissioned me to do for the opening concert. The Savaria Symphony Orchestra will be performing it, conducted by Howard Williams. After that I have to compose a short piece for Miklós Lukács for the dulcimer, who apart from being at home in contemporary music, old music, and jazz, is also a childhood friend of mine. My composition POLY will be performed at the end of February in the Konzerthaus in Berlin, and one of my short compositions I wrote as an obligatory piece will be performed in the French Horn Category of the 35^th Brass Competition inDebrecen in April. And of course two or three pieces are dancing around in my head which, if I get the chance, or maybe receive commission for, I can hopefully realize.

More information about Balázs Horváth can be found at http://www.balazshorvath.com/

Related

• JCI – Young Expats on the Move 22 March 2012, Thursday
• Music Minutes – The Young and the Beautiful 14 February 2012, Tuesday
• A Little Evening Music 16 January 2012, Monday
• Young Musicians at Trafó 30 December 2011, Friday
• Music on an Optimistic Note 13 December 2011, Tuesday