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Kate Molleson explores György Ligeti's arrival in the west, which brought the composer new opportunities. He set the musical world alight with Apparitions and went on to create the atmospheric soundscape of Lontano. With guest contributor, pianist Danny Driver.

Known to millions through the film director Stanley Kubrick's use of his music in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ligeti's music reflects the seismic events taking place in central Europe in the mid-20th century - shifting borders, war, totalitarianism and for many, exile. These harrowing experiences all made a deep imprint on him and his music. He was born in 1923 into a Jewish Hungarian family in an area that had become part of Romanian Transylvania. After years of state repression, in 1956 at the onset of the Hungarian revolution, Ligeti made a dramatic escape on foot to the West. Freed from state intervention, he was to remain artistically and personally independent of any particular orthodoxies for the rest of his life. He died in 2006 at the age of 83.

Ligeti regarded the whole world as the material for his music. He was fascinated by anything and everything: philosophy, science, the arts, literature - Alice in Wonderland was one of his favourite books. His music can be playful, at times wickedly macabre. He loved patterns, he loved rhythm, he dived into mathematical concepts of immense complexity but was equally curious about history, folklore, the cosmos and the natural world. The week includes many of Ligeti's best loved works including the sonata for cello, Apparitions, Lontano, Clocks and Clouds and Melodien. From the piano, Danny Driver, a huge Ligeti enthusiast, opens up the magical universe Ligeti creates in his piano music, with a special focus on the three sets of piano studies.

Social unrest in Hungary was growing, and by the autumn of 1956 it was clear that the occupying Russian forces' hold over the country was insecure. In the freezing cold early weeks of December, Ligeti and his wife Vera embarked on a perilous journey.

Musica ricercata (excerpt)
I: Sostenuto
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

Cello Sonata
II: Capriccio. Presto con slancio
Natalie Clein, cello

Apparitions
II: Agitato
WDR Sinfonieorchester
Peter Eötvös, conductor

Musica ricercata nos 9 to 11
Pierre Laurent Aimard, piano
No. 9, Adagio – Mesto ded. To Bartok
No. 10, Vivace – Capriccioso
No. 11, Andante misurato e tranquillo, Omaggio a Frescobaldi
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

Lontano
Berlin Philharmonic
Jonathan Nott, conductor

Three Pieces for Two Pianos
Monument
Selbstportrait
Bewegung
Alessio Bax, piano
Lucille Chung, piano

Producer: Johannah Smith