The Royal Philharmonic Society has announced two recipients of its Gold Medal this year, Gyorgy Kurtág and András Schiff. Both are Hungarian, making it a proud year for that country's musical circles. People tend to underestimate the amount of musical talent in Hungary, but any country that can produce singers of the quality of László Polgár, Sándor Kónya, Eva Marton, Júlia Várady, Sylvia Sass, Andrea Rost, Zoltán Kelemen and Friedrich Schorr; and musicians like Solti, Fricsay, Géza Anda, Swarowsky, Szell, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Kodály, Zoltán Kocsis, Ivan Fischer, Adám Fischer, Sándor Végh and, er, Liszt is surely passes muster on that front!
So much for making the case for not underestimating musical Hungary (Eugene Ormandy, Joseph Joachim -- OK, we'll stop now). There's less need perhaps to strain to explain with the RPS has decide to honor Kurtág and his former pupil Schiff. In fact, Kurtág was born in Romania but came to Hungary for his studied and has stayed for most of his subsequent life -- there was also an important period in France where he learnt from Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen. Influenced by them and by Webern, he began to consciously explore the accepted conventions of music, playing with ideas of space and the relationship with the audience. He is now an undoubted member of the great 20th and 21st century composers.
As for Schiff, he is similarly a very great pianist, one with the rare talent to find a pellucid line even amongst crowded fistfuls of notes. Audience members will doubtless be interested to see whether, when he is presented with the prestigious award on December 21 at Wigmore Hall, he will refer to the recent rise of anti-Semitism and racism in Hungary, elements he has spoken out against on various occasions in recent years. Kurtág will be given his medal at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on December 1.
