Bartók, Kurtág birthdays highlights of contemporary music calendar in 2006

Speaking at Budapest?s Palace of the Arts, Mr Bozóki said the ministry would support a series of concerts and programmes, in Hungary and abroad, which aim to recognize two of Hungary?s great composers. The ministry will spend HUF 282 million to support events and programmes organised for the 125th anniversary of Bartók's birth, and it will spend another HUF 20 million on a five-day concert at the Palace of the Arts to mark Kurtág?s birthday on February 19.

Mr Bozóki noted that Kurtág, along with Hungarian peers Péter Eötvös and György Ligeti, are better-known abroad than in Hungary. But the ministry intends to change that.

The ministry will spend HUF 180 million to support the Budapest Spring Festival, which will be dedicated to the double anniversaries of Bartók?s and Mozart?s births, Mr Bozóki said.