Die Sammlung Bálint András Varga

The autograph collection of the Hungarian music publicist Bálint András Varga, who lives in Vienna, reflects his personal connection with many important composers of the 20th century. Born in Budapest in 1941, Varga initially worked for the English section of Hungarian Radio before joining the music publishing house Editio Musica Budapest in 1971 and - after a year at the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Berlin - Universal Edition Vienna from 1991 to 2008.
The volume contains illustrations of graphics that Varga received in response to the question "Can you draw your music?". Numerous composers sent him pictorial representations of their music, often with a dose of self-irony, including Louis Andriessen, George Benjamin, Earle Brown, Friedrich Cerha, George Crumb, Marc-André Dalbavie, Franco Donatoni, Pascal Dusapin, Henri Dutilleux, Sylvia Fómina, Beat Furrer, Cristóbal Halffter, Jonathan Harvey, Toshio Hosokawa, György Kurtág, Gyötgy Ligeti, Arvo Pärt, Henri Pousseur, Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, Peter Ruzicka, Johannes Maria Staud and Iannis Xenakis.
Varga asked 19 composers three questions each, whose very different answers are published here for the first time in Germany: Luciano Berio, Harrison Birtwistle, Pierre Boulez, Earl Brown, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Sofia Gubaidulina, Hans Werner Henze, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, György Ligeti, Luigi Nono, Henri Pousseur, Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, Pierre Schaeffer, Dieter Schnebel and Christian Wolff.
A detailed and informative conversation between Varga and Márta and György Kurtág appears in print for the first time, as well as a facsimile of the fragment of Kurtág's piano concerto Confessio op. 21.
A list of the autograph collection in the Bálint András Varga Archive, which includes manuscripts by Ferenc Farkas, György Kurtág, István Láng, Witold Lutos?awski, György Ránki and Johannes Maria Staud, completes the volume.

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