Kafka Fragments, Barbican Hall

A Modernist mystery becomes supple and elusive in the hands of Dawn Upshaw

by Alexandra CoghlanFriday, 12 November 2010

Dog eat dog: 'David Michalek's images dominate the projected backdrop'David Michalek

A 70-minute song cycle for soprano and violin, the Kafka Fragments is the magnum opus (the irony of its miniature forms seems entirely deliberate) of György Kurtág, a composer known for the inscrutability of his music. His lines arrive at the ears fully armed, unwilling to surrender their meaning. A performance of the Fragments at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 2008 famously drove a musically literate audience from the room, so can Peter Sellars's staged interpretation really offer a more engaging experience? Up to a point.

An iron becomes an instrument of self-torture, a pullover a beloved child

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