13.02.2022., Amsterdam, Concertgebouw.

Commissioned by and premiered by the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Gergely Madaras. The score is published by UMP Editio Musica Budapest.

"From Picasso to Kieslowsky, artists have explored the resonance of the colour blue.

While working on the piece, I was inspired by the monochrome paintings of Yves Klein. These pictures focusing on only one colour have an immediate and primary effect, while requiring in depth study to explore the almost infinite number of shades present in them. I was particularly struck by the range of emotions these works produced.

I took this same idea and applied it to this composition creating “blue harmonies” and “blue melodies”. There is a single motif at the core of the piece that can be regarded as a story of this musical idea. Using gradually changing orchestral colours, the motif progresses through different characterisations, evoking tenderness, comfort, distress, enthusiasm and reflection. 

The colour blue seems especially relevant to our times. I invite you to experience your own shades of blue in this work."

(Balázs Kecskés D.)

Blue - for orchestra performed by the Netherlands Philharmonic

Performed by the Discantus Ensemble, conducted by Péter Mészáros. Recorded at the Fasor Reformed Church, Budapest, 06.06.2021.

Miserere:

You created my inmost being. (Psalm 139, 13)
Miserere nobis. (Have mercy upon us.)
My frame was not hidden from you. (Psalm 139, 15)
Your eyes saw my unformed body. (Psalm 139, 16)
Miserere nobis.
Your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written is your book
before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139, 16)

Miserere - for mixed choir

Performed by the Discantus Ensemble, conducted by Péter Mészáros. Recorded at the Fasor Reformed Church, Budapest, 30.04.2022.


Text:


I. Ezek - These (Matthew 20,1-16)

These! Last will be first, and the first last.

II. Mit gondolsz? – Which, do you think? (Luke 10,30-37)

Which [of these three], do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man [who fell among the robbers]?

III. Reménykedve várjuk – We await the Lord with hope (John 5,19-30)

We await the Lord with hope.

Whoever hears my word...

We await the Lord with hope.

Whoever hears my word and beleives him who sent me has eternal life.


Szöveg:


I. Ezek (Mt 20,1-16)

Ezek! Elsőkből utolsók.

II. Mit gondolsz? (Lk 10,30-37)

Mit gondolsz, ki volt a felebarátja? 

III. Reménykedve várjuk (Jn 5,19-30)

Reménykedve várjuk az Urat.

Az, aki hallja az igémet...

Reménykedve várjuk az Urat.

Az, aki hallja az én igémet, annak örök élete van.

Reménykedve várjuk - three motets based on Jesus' parables for mixed choir

Performed by the Saint Ephraim Male Choir and the Budapest Strings. Recorded at the Saint Angels Parish Church, Budapest, 24.09.2023.

Text:

I. introitus

Which of us is without fear? Who would not fear
when even God's eyes shut?
(Pilinszky: Introitus; Transleted by Ted Hughes and János Csokits)

Requiem aeternam.

II. kyrie

Shame.
Kyrie eleison.
Shame.
So many kinds of shame and fancied glory
make up the net we flounder in.
(Pilinszky: How Ambivalent; Translated by Katalin N. Ullrich)

We chose Narcissus instead of you!
(Plinszky: Conversations)

III. lacrimosa

Blue woodlands of the past, they spread behind,
In front are future's sowings, green, aligned.
One's far, yet will our bond not severe,
The other's out of reach for ever.
(Petőfi: Blue woodlands of the past; Translated by Leslie A. Kery)

Lacrimosa dies illa.

IV. recitativo

Life is not worth as much as!...
(Petőfi: Life is not worth...)

V. dona nobis

Which of us is without fear?
Him alone, (...) who was killed.
(Pilinszky: Introitus)

Dona nobis pacem.

Szöveg:

kis rekviem

I. introitus

Ki nem fél közülünk? Ki nem félne,
midőn szemét az Isten is lehúnyja?
(Pilinszky: Introitusz)

Requiem aeternam.

II. kyrie

Szégyen.
Kyrie eleison.
Szégyen.
Hányféle szégyen és képzelt dicsőség
hálójában evickélünk.
(Pilinszky: Milyen felemás)

Helyetted Narcisszuszt választottuk!
(Plinszky: Beszélgetések)

III. lacrimosa

Mögöttem a múlt szép kék erdősége,
Előttem a jövő szép zöld vetése;
Az mindig messze és mégsem hagy el.
Azt el nem érem, bár mindig közel.
(Petőfi: Mögöttem a múlt)

Lacrimosa dies illa.

IV. recitativo

Annyit sem ér az élet!...
(Petőfi: Annyit sem ér az élet...)

V. dona nobis

Ki nem fél közülünk?
Egyedül ő, (...) kit megöltek.
(Pilinszky: Introitusz)

Dona nobis pacem.

kis rekviem (little requiem) - for male choir and string orchestra

Performed by the San Francisco Choral Artists. Conductor: Magen Solomon.

Text:

Közel van az Úr a megtört szívűekhez, és megsegíti a megsebzett lelkeket. (Zsolt 34,19.)

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit (Psalm 34,18.)

Közel (Near) - for mixed choir performed by the San Francisco Choral Artists

Performed by Domonkos Csabay. Recorded at the Pesti Vigadó, Ceremonial Hall, Budapest.

The living connection with earlier pieces from the music history is of primary importance for me as a composer. My four-movement piano cycle entitled Bagatelles was also born in this spirit. The inspiration was partly given by the 2020 Beethoven anniversary. This year, I dealt a lot with the author's piano pieces in the genre, with particular attention to the two late cycles. I was impressed by the freedom and at the same time wonderfully coherent structure that forms the basis of the works. My goal with my new composition was the rethinking of the genre of the 'bagatelle' in today's environment.

Bagatelles - for piano solo

Recorded by the San Francisco Choral Artists, conductor: Magen Solomon, Oakland, 17.03.2024

Text:

mily szép vagy
thou art beautiful, o my love
tégy engem
set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm
sok víz sem
many waters cannot quench love

(Selected English and Hungarian lines from the Song of Solomon)

thou - for mixed choir performed by the San Francisco Choral Artists

Sarabande (Postlude no. 18)

Balázs Kecskés D. (*1993): Partita for Piano solo (2017)
Domonkos Csabay - piano

Parts:
I. Toccata
II. Aria
III. 
IV. Epilogue

photo: ODPictures Art Studio | #odpictures

Partita - for piano solo

Balázs Kecskés D.: Accusativus 

Bálint Kruppa (violin), András Kurgyis (viola), János Fejérvári (cello), Domonkos Csabay (piano)

„Accusativus, the winning piano quartet of our 2018 Composition Competition by Balázs Kecskés, recalls the harmonic language of the Romantic period, but with a subtlety that takes it away from the drama and excesses that also characterize that period. So much of the great composers of the past still live on in the today’s young composers, whether intentionally or not. When we went through the score of Accusativus, we thought Balázs Kecskés must have been paying homage to Brahms, because his last movement is built around a tender sighing figure that recalls the opening of Brahm’s G major violin sonata.

When asked about it, he told us he had not been consciously thinking of that work, or even Brahms, when he was composing the piece. The same heartfelt impulses behind that rhetorical motive for Brahms was also behind Balázs even though he was born more than 150 years later.

Accusativus is a suite of 5 short movements, which progress through different characters of meditative, driving, tender, boisterous, and reflective. Balázs creates mesmerizing moments of suspended beauty, with an ear for stillness and reverie that makes one think of Debussy.”

/Jeanette Fang, pianist of the Garth Newel Piano Quartet/

Design: Evu Szabó, avesophia.com

www.kecskesdbalazs.com

Ismeretlen album (2018.03.14. 14:49:56)

Accusativus - for piano quartet

Kruppa String Quartet (Bálint Kruppa - 1st violin; Éva Osztrosits - 2nd violin; András Kurgyis - viola; Barnabás Baranyai - cello), Roberta Szklenár (soprano), Viola Thurnay (alto), József Csapó (tenor), Dömötör Pintér (bass), Marcell Dénes-Worowski (conductor)

/////

Komm

Tu es un blanc ou un noir, un homme ou une femme, un riche, ou un pauvre?
Il n'y a plus de machines binaires: question-réponse, masculin-féminin, homme-animal.
(Deleuze-Parnet)

O komm. (Thymich)

Ce ne sont pas des personnes, mais le chiffre de leur propre combinaison. (Deleuze-Parnet)

O komm. (Thymich)

Ce qui compte dans un chemin, ce qui compte dans une ligne, c'est toujours au milieu pas le
le début ni la fin. On est toujours au milieu d'un chemin, au milieu de quelque chose.
(Deluze-Parnet)

O komm. (Thymich)

Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks.
(T. S. Eliot)

O komm. (Thymich)

And let my cry come unto Thee.
(T. S. Eliot)

O komm. (Tyimich)

/////

Komm

Are you white or black, man or woman, rich or poor? 
There are no longer binary machines: question-answer, masculine-feminine, man-animal.
(Deleuze-Parnet)

Oh, come. (Thymich)

These are not people, but the figure of their of their own combination. (Deleuze-Parnet)

Oh, come. (Thymich)

What matters on a path, what matters on a line, is always the middle, not the beginning or the end. We are always in the middle of a path, in the middle of something.
(Deleuze-Parnet)

Oh, come (Thymich)

Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks.
(T. S. Eliot)

Oh, come. (Thymich)

And let my cry come unto Thee.
(T. S. Eliot)

Oh, come. (Tyimich)

Komm - little oratorio for four voices and string quartet

Nóra Tatai (soprano), Ferenc János Szabó (piano)

///

Arany János: Patience and courage
(selected lines)

I.
The tempest of the heart wakes and subsides.

The essential element of joy is woe.

II.
Yester-eve Hope felled.

III.
Now the air above me and the waters all around are soft and tranquil.

IV.
The atmosphere of happiness grows bright purified by regret.

V.
Not easily the tortured heart is cleft, - it mellows and becomes more apt to hold a deeper impress of delight.

Translated by Nora de Vallyi and Dorothy Stuart

///

Arany János: Enyhülés
(részletek)

I.
Kél és száll a szív viharja.

Fájdalom a boldogságnak
Egyik alkatrésze.

II.
Tegnap a remény is eltört.


III.
Ma fölöttem és alattam
Ég és tenger sima.

IV.
Az örömnek levegőjét
Megtisztítja bánat.

V.
Nem törik a szenvedő szív
Oly könnyen darabbá,
Csak ellágyul, s az örömre
Lesz fogékonyabbá.

Enyhülés (Patience and Courage) - for soprano and piano

Balázs Kecskés D. is a Budapest-based composer, who writes music that calls to listeners’ imaginations offering them the sound space to experience the collision of multiple worlds. His influences range from St Augustine to Friedrich Nietzsche, from Franz Schubert to Katy Perry, and from J. S. Bach to Meredith Monk. His oratorio, Komm has been described as having a “unique profane spirituality, through which the audience can … be part of a truly sacred experience” (Bartók Radio, New Music Journal). Komm was presented at the 67th International Rostrum of Composers in October 2021, and in 2022 it was performed by Nils Scweckendiek in Gdansk and Helsinki. His orchestra piece, Blue, commissioned by the Netherlands Philharmonic was recently premiered at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Upcoming projects will include new choir pieces for the San Francisco Choral Artists.

His works have been premiered by ensembles such as the Helsinki Chamber Choir, the NeoQuartet, the Estonian Collegium Musicale Chamber Choir, the U.S.-based Garth Newel Piano Quartet, the Hungarian Radio Orchestra and Choir and the Budapest String Orchestra. Balázs’s compositions have been performed in Düsseldorf, Riga, London, Tbilisi, and Hot Springs, Virginia. 

One of only two composers selected to be mentored in the Peter Eötvös Foundation in 2021, Balázs has written music for groups such as Ars Nova Ensemble, France, the Danubia Orchestra Óbuda, Hungary and the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra. Balázs won the Istvánffy Benedek Award of the Hungarian Composers’ Union in 2020 and 2019. This award is given annually to an outstanding composer under 40.



As a lecturer at the Composition Department of the Liszt Academy of Music, Balázs teaches baroque and Viennese classical techniques and contemporary music analysis. Through his teaching activity he maintains a living connection with the classical repertoire, while exploring the latest in contemporary techniques together with his students. Understanding music in its broader cultural contexts, Balázs writes essays on everything from electronics and AI in classical music to comparing pop songs to Schubert Lieder.

He holds degrees from the Liszt Academy of Music where he studied with János Vajda, and spent a semester at the Luigi Cherubini Music as a student of Paolo Furlani.

Balázs KECSKÉS D.

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