‘Play like a dog biting God’s feet’: Steven Isserlis on the formidable György Kurtág at 100

Their friendship and musical partnership spans four decades. As the legendary Hungarian composer turns 100, cellist Steven Isserlis celebrates a musician of boundless imagination, humour – and his vivid way with words I vividly remember my first meeting with György Kurtág. It was 40 or so years ago at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, Cornwall. I was sitting in the dining hall there, when a man with grizzled hair and an unusually fervent countenance came up to me and, with ...

By Steven Isserlis