The Edge of Silence - Works for Voice by György Kurtág review | Andrew Clements's classical album of the week

The Guardian 80

Narucki/Berman/Macomber/Tolle/Schulmeister
(Avie)
Susan Narucki’s album of Kurtág’s music is committed, expressive and profound

The soprano Susan Narucki has been an unflinching champion of a huge range of contemporary music from both sides of the Atlantic for more than 30 years, but the vocal works of György Kurtág have always had a central place in her repertoire. They have become, she writes: “Essential to the way that I understand music … the heart of my practice as a musician.” Her collection of some of those pieces is based around two of Kurtág’s greatest vocal works, Scenes from a Novel Op 19, on texts by the Russian poet Rimma Dalos, completed in 1982, and the Attila József Fragments Op 20, from the previous year.