Orchestre de chambre de Paris & Tabea Zimmermann: Théâtre des Champs‐Elysées

About the Event

Tabea Zimmermann’s viola with conductor Gábor Káli on the rostrum to celebrate the Kurtág centenary.

Movement for Viola and Orchestra is a youthful work by Kurtág, and in 2026 we will celebrate the centenary of his birth. It is heavily influenced by his compatriot and predecessor Bartók, but also has slight undertones of Beethoven and Brahms. This “Romantic ballad” (to quote the composer) blends powerful orchestral passages and virtuoso interventions by a solist who must take up the not inconsiderable challenge of playing in a high register. Tabea Zimmermann is a dream performer for this score: Kurtág dedicated Signs, Games & Messages to her with the words “ … eine Blume für Tabea…”. The conductor is another Hungarian, Gábor Káli, who has already conducted a Slav programme at the helm of the Orchestre de chambre de Paris in 2024. The other works by Schubert, Bartók and Beethoven which he conducts are also an extension of the homage to Kurtág. The discovery of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony was the first musical shock experienced by the young Kurtág and he confesses: “this is the reason why I became a musician. My ideal of beauty is the slow movement of Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony”. Composers from the past play a key role in the aesthetic of this composer who used to say: “my mother tongue is Bartók, and Bartók’s mother tongue is Beethoven.”