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SEQUENZA21/
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Record companies, artists and publicists are invited to submit CDs to be considered for review. Send to: Jerry Bowles, Editor, Sequenza 21, 340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019

Saturday, April 23, 2005
Gyorgy de Transylvania is Number Two

All this "Pierre de France is Number One" business reminds me of a great story about Gyorgy Ligeti. In 1993, Ligeti came to Boston for a week long festival of his works at New England Conservatory. This is the story approximately as I remember hearing it from composer and NEC faculty member John Heiss, who coordinated the visit and prepared the festival:

The day Ligeti arrived he, his assistant, John Heiss, and Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe went to lunch together. Dyer asked Ligeti how he felt about being called "the world's greatest living composer" in NEC's publicity materials. Ligeti said "I am not the greatest composer, I'm only the eighth greatest at best." Then he changed the subject. A little while later he said "Well, maybe the seventh greatest." More conversation about other things, and then "Perhaps the sixth greatest." You see where this is going. Through the rest of the meal he went through fifth, fourth, and third, and then at the end as they were preparing to leave he said "I am probably the second greatest." Richard Dyer asked "well, who is the first?" Ligeti said "all of my colleagues."

Dyer recounts the story somewhat differently in his article in the Globe, which he titles "Boston welcomes 'second greatest' living composer."

"Last Wednesday, Ligeti came to lunch with his administrative assistant, Dr. Louise Duchesneau, and John Heiss, coordinator of the residency and festival . . . He professed modest embarrassment at some Conservatory publicity proclaiming him the "world's greatest living composer." "Just call me the second greatest," he said. "Then they will ask me who the greatest is, and I will answer, 'All my colleagues.' " (The Boston Globe, March 7, 1993)

Either way, it's a cute response. And while I don't know about first or second greatest, Ligeti is clearly in the top tier.
posted by Galen H. Brown 4/23/2005



 
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