The concert was the last of a five-day series organised to celebrate Kurtág?s birthday. The concert programme included excerpts from Kurtág's "New Messages", performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Choir conducted by Zoltán Kocsis, and it featured the premiere of the composer?s "Songs of Losing Heart and Bitterness", performed by the National Choir and the UMZE Chamber Orchestra.
At a reception following the concert, Culture Minister András Bozóki presented Kurtág with a 1679 vellum-bound edition of the complete works of Herodotus in Latin and Greek. Kurtág is still happy to read the classics in the original.
Also to mark Kurtág?s birthday, a book entitled Hommage ? György Kurtág, chronicling his career, has been published. The book compiles reviews, studies and interviews published earlier, but also contains never-before-published photographs taken by the book?s editor, Domokos Moldován, and some supplied by Kurtág. Partly an effort by music critics to honour Kurtág, the book also contains a definitive catalogue of Kurtág?s works.
