János Négyesy (or ''Négyesy János'', as should be written in Hungarian) was a Hungarian violinist with a particular interest in

contemporary music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included serial ...

. He performed world premieres of numerous works, the first two books of the Freeman Etudes (etudes I–XVI and XVII–XXXII) by American composer

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

among others. He was also the first European violinist who recorded the complete Violin and Piano Sonatas of

Charles Ives Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed f ...

(with pianist Cornelius Cardew). He is the author of a teaching and reference book on violin techniques, which was commissioned after he met

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mont ...

at IRCAM in 1976. In 1979, he joined the faculty of the University of California at San Diego. He is also known for his computer paintings. He began doing these artworks after moving to San Diego, California.

Biography

János Négyesy was born in Budapest, Hungary on September 13, 1938 and died on December 20, 2013. His father was taken by the Nazis to a concentration camp, from where he never returned. He got his first violin at the age of four, and only six months later he gave his first public concert at his school. According to him, this was the moment when he decided to become a violinist. He later became a student of Ferenc Gábriel at the

Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music ( hu, Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem, often abbreviated as ''Zeneakadémia'', "Liszt Academy") is a music university and a concert hall in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875. It is home to the ...

of Budapest, who introduced him to Tibor Varga, a former student of Gábriel before World War II. After receiving an invitation in 1965, Négyesy moved to Detmold and continued his studies with Varga. From 1970 to 1974 he served as concertmaster of the Radio Berlin Orchestra, which was led by

Lorin Maazel Lorin Varencove Maazel (, March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in th ...

at the time. In 1976 he was invited by French composer

to IRCAM for a week of performances. This invitation resulted in a commission for Négyesy to write a book on violin techniques. In 1979, while staying in Lisboa he received a phone call at 3 a.m. asking him if he would join the Music Department at UCSD. Later it turned out that this call changed his life: as of 2012, he is an active teacher at UCSD. It was there in San Diego where he met Finnish violinist Päivikki Nykter, a former student of his, who became his wife in 1992. During the past decades they made several recordings together, the complete violin duos of

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...

and compositions dedicated to them, among others. There are several composers who dedicated pieces to Négyesy (probably the most notable is One⁶ by

) including

Attila Bozay Attila (, ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. He was also the leader of a tribal empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Bulgars, among others, in Central and Ea ...

, Carlos Fariñas, Vinko Globokar, Georg Hajdu, Roger Reynolds, Robert Wittinger and Isang Yun. He also has notable recordings of pieces of composers like

, Morton Feldman or Kaija Saariaho. Recently he also became regarded as a master of Max Mathews' electronic violin. János Negesy died on Friday, December 20, 2013.

Discography

Dedications – Works for Two Violins
– Seven works for violin duo written expressly for János Négyesy and Päivikki Nykter. Aucourant Records, 2000.
Solo Violin Recital
– Works by five contemporary women composers. Aucourant Records, 2006.

References

External links

An interview
with János Négyesy.
János Négyesy
in

DRAM Dynamic random-access memory (dynamic RAM or DRAM) is a type of random-access semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell, usually consisting of a tiny capacitor and a transistor, both typically based on metal-oxid ...

.
The unofficial website
of János Négyesy.
Computer Paintings
by János Négyesy.
Biography web page at UCSD
{{DEFAULTSORT:Negyesy, Janos 1938 births 2013 deaths Hungarian classical violinists Male classical violinists Hungarian music educators Digital artists 20th-century classical violinists Concertmasters 20th-century Hungarian male musicians

Biography

Discography

See also

References

External links