Missouri Classical Music News

The man who was widely and justly considered the greatest of them all died today at the age of eighty-three. There's no way to sum up in brief what Ligeti's music meant; it was an awesome cross-section of the benighted twentieth century, whose worst horrors he knew first hand.

György Ligeti, considered by many classical musicians to be the greatest living composer, died Monday in Vienna. He was 83.

The Hungarian-Jewish composer fled Nazis, Communists and avant-garde dogmatists to forge a style that revolutionized modern music. . . .

"He taught us how to listen to sound, not just as music necessarily so much as just plain sound," said Paul Rudy, professor of composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory. "His orchestral repertoire is not performed much, but it's really groundbreaking in how it treats the orchestra. Kubrick made the world aware of him, but the rest of us knew about him already." . . .

His music had a huge impact on subsequent composers, who emulated his style and techniques, said UMKC composer James Mobberley.

"That, more than anything else, puts him at the very top among the composers of his generation."

• Ligeti's web page.
  
• A number of MP3 samples of Ligeti's music.
  
• New York Times obituary
  
• Washington Post obituary
  
• A Ligeti roundup by Alex Ross