In the eulogy, delivered in Vienna?s Central Cemetery, Hiller acknowledged Ligeti?s place as a world-renowned composer who found his home outside of Hungary, but noted that Ligeti?s music still showed the colours of his birthplace.
?(Ligeti) was one of the greatest figures of music history in the 20th century, an independent and multifarious artist who defied classification?.I am proud to hear in his music traces of Hungarian folk songs, the heritage of Bartók and the musical motives of Transylvania. It is good to know that this thoroughly cosmopolitan composer, who was equally at home in Vienna and Hamburg, remained faithful to his roots,? Hiller said.
Hiller recalled that Ligeti had survived both the Holocaust ? which claimed the lives of his father and brother ? and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Ligeti lived most of his life outside of Hungary, and his music was wrongly banned from Hungarian concert halls for years. Still, Ligeti continued to call himself a Hungarian.
Ligeti last visited Budapest five years ago. Iin 2003 he received the Kossuth Prize, Hungary?s highest award for artists.
?On behalf of our nation, I come here, close to where Beethoven and Schubert rest, and where György Ligeti will rest as a Hungarian. I come here to tell him that he will remain one of the greatest Hungarian composers in the world?s eyes and also in our eyes,? Hiller told the family, friends and colleagues of Ligeti gathered for the service.
Other speakers at the memorial service were State Secretary at the Austrian Ministry of Culture Franz Morak, who called Ligeti a global citizen of music, and Czech composer Friedrich Cerha, who said Ligeti?s departure had left a void which will be difficult to fill.
Hungarian composer and pianist György Kurtág and his wife Márta Kurtág played piano at the memorial service. The event was also attended by Budapest deputy mayor János Schiffer and the heads of the Hungarian embassy in Vienna and of the Collegium Hungaricum.
In honour of Ligeti, a concert of his works was held in the Mozart Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus on Monday afternoon. In addition to piano etudes, the programme included the choral work ?Lux Aeterna? (1966) and a composition written for 100 metronomes entitled ?Poeme symphonique?.
Ligeti will be interred in a monument to be erected at a later date by the city of Vienna.
Source: Hungarian Press Agency (MTI) / German Press Agency (DPA)
