Cotton Candy & Superheroines

Cologne's former general music director Markus Stenz is completely fascinated by György Kurtág's art of ‘saying so much with so few notes’. This minimalist expressiveness also applies to Kurtág's ‘Messages from the Late Miss R.V. Trussowa’. With this vocal work, Stenz and the Ensemble Musikfabrik are now belatedly congratulating the Hungarian composer on his 100th birthday. In addition, two new works by Żaneta Rydzewska from Poland and Alex Hren from Slovenia, created as part of the International ACHT BRÜCKEN Composition Competition 2025, will be performed.

Kurtág made his international breakthrough in 1981 with ‘Messages from the Late Miss R.V. Trussowa’ for soprano and chamber ensemble. The role of a woman in existential states of emergency is now taken on by Ukrainian soprano Viktoriia Vitrenko, who was nominated for the German Record Critics' Award in 2019 for her Kurtág album.

Supported by the Kunststiftung NRW