Cristóbal Halffter, Friedrich Cerha, Georg Friedrich Haas, Johannes Maria Staud, Bálint András Varga, Jay Schwartz, Vykintas Baltakas, and Harrison Birtwistle on 29 November 2007.

Congratulations to our friend Bálint András Varga, who used to promote the UE-catalogue for more than 15 years, for the publication of his book From Boulanger to Stockhausen – Interviews and a Memoir, which has been released on 15 October.

The book features 19 interviews with composers, conductors, instrumentalists and singers, a dozen snippets, and a memoir, in which Varga recounts his experiences growing up in a Jewish family in Hungary during World War II and the early years of Communist rule.

Excerpts from the back cover:

“The interviews in From Boulanger to Stockhausen, which he carried out over the past few decades, have today become an important document for new generations of musicians and music lovers.” (Riccardo Chailly)

“This is a book of voices. We hear great musicians speaking with fresh immediacy” (Paul Griffiths)

“Bálint András Varga is one of the great listeners in the recent history of music. […] Surging toward sound on every silent page, this book is a major document both of the century now past and of the century unfolding.” (Alex Ross)

Here is a full list of the interviewees: Claudio Abbado, Georges Auric, Cathy Berberian, Nadia Boulanger, Ernest Bour, Alfred Brendel, Sir Neville Cardus, Aaron Copland, Antal Doráti, Adám Fischer, Iván Fischer, Géza Frid, Sir William Glock, Sylvia Goldstein, Alois Hába, Ralph Kirkpatrick, György Kurtág, Walter Legge, György Ligeti, Witold Lutoslawski, Sir Neville Marriner, Yehudi Menuhin, Eugene Ormandy,Vlado Perlemuter, Arthur Rubinstein, György Sándor, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Isaac Stern, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Wolfgang Stresemann, Walter Susskind, Hans Swarowsky, Joseph Szigeti, Tibor Varga

The book is available at the University of Rochester Press and on Amazon.