Mátyás Seiber's Ulysses in New York Premiere at Carnegie Hall

The highlight of the international events marking the 50th anniversary of Hungarian composer Mátyás Seiber’s death was undoubtedly the New York premiere performance of his cantata Ulysses at Carnegie Hall on October 6. Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra presented the 45 minute cantata for solo tenor, chorus and orchestra set to text from James Joyce’s celebrated novel at Carnegie Hall in a fitting celebration of Seiber’s life and music.

An integral yet lesser-known counterpart of the Hungarian masters of 20th-century music alongside Dohnányi, Bartók, Ligeti and Kurtág, Mátyás Seiber studied with Kodály while in Budapest before moving to Germany where his progressive aesthetics were met with less opposition. For example, Seiber submitted his 1925 wind sextet  for a prize in a competition and did not win after which Bartók, a member of the jury, resigned in protest. While in Germany Seiber developed his knowledge of jazz music and composition and was at the forefront of jazz education in Europe, instituting one of the first European courses in Jazz at Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium. Upon moving to London to escape Nazi Germany he was recruited by Michael Tippett to teach at Morely College.

Seiber tragically lost his life in 1960 when he was killed in a car accident in South Africa. Ligeti’s Atmospheres was written in dedication to the composer. Throughout his life Seiber maintained an eclectic interest in musical idioms that included folk and jazz music. He developed a compositional oeuvre than spans classical genres including music for film and radio such as his score to the film of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. His most prized contribution to 20th-century music is no doubt his massive cantata Ulysses. The performance at Carnegie is continued evidence of the long-awaited successful revival of his unique and innovative musical output on concert stages worldwide.

The Edinburgh Quartet has recorded Seiber's complete string quartets, three works that span his compositional life, and the CD was released recently on Delphian. The recording may be purchased here. The Mátyás Seiber Trust is currently working to produce a new recording of Ulysses and Three Fragments from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Mátyás Seiber-Composer Profile

www.seiber2005.org.uk

Mátyás Seiber
Ulysses (1946/1947)
for tenor, mixed chorus and orchestra
text by James Joyce
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45’

Three Fragments (1958)
from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce
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19’

Notturno (1944)
for horn and string orchestra
8’