(b. 1939, Hódmezővásárhely).
Hungarian composer, now resident in both Germany and Hungary, of mostly chamber and organ works that have been performed in Asia, Europe and North America; he is also active as an organist and pianist.
Mr. Szathmáry studied composition with Ferenc Szabó and organ with Ferenc Gergely at the Ferenc List Academy of Music in Budapest from 1958–63. He then studied organ with Alois Forer in Vienna and with Helmut Walcha in Frankfurt am Main from 1963–66 and attended the Kölner Kurse für Neue Musik, where he studied with Christoph Caskel, Henri Pousseur and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and the Ferienkurse in Darmstadt, where he studied with György Ligeti, from 1964–67.
Among his honours are First Prize in the competition for organists Budapest (1960), the Bach-Preis-Stipendium from the city of Hamburg (1972) and the Franz Liszt Badge from the National Franz Liszt Memorial Committee in Budapest (1987). He has been a member of the Freie Akademie der Künste in Hamburg since 1973.
As an organist, he has worked primarily in Hamburg, but also at the cathedral in Bremen. He has given tours throughout the world and has given more than 120 world premières, including music by Péter Eötvös, Vinko Globokar, Heinz Holliger, Hans Ulrich Lehmann, and other composers.
As a pianist, he has played music by Helmut Lachenmann and other composers.
He taught at the Musikhochschule Lübeck from 1972–76 and the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover from 1976–78. He then taught as a professor at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg in Freiburg im Breisgau from 1978–2004. In addition, he has given lectures throughout Europe and in Japan, South Korea and the USA and is a regular lecturer at both the Ferienkurse in Darmstadt and the summer academy for organists in Haarlem.
His primary publishers are the Bärenreiter-Verlag and Moeck Musikinstrumente + Verlag.
SELECT LIST OF WORKS (dates unavailable for most works)
ORCHESTRAL:
Drei Orchesterstücke, 2001–02
Cadenza con ostinati, violin, small orchestra (version of chamber work)
Drei Aphorismen
Fünf Sätze, organ, small orchestra
CHAMBER MUSIC:
Katharsis, clarinet, organ, percussion, 1972
Organ – Sho, shō (mouth organ from Japan), organ, barrel organ, 1980
Cadenza con ostinati, violin, organ, 1994 (also version for violin, small orchestra)
Discourse, trombone, violin, 2002, revised 2005
Sense of Rhythm, organ, percussion, 2011
Dies iræ, organ, percussion, 2015
Alpha, flute, clarinet, trumpet, violin, viola, cello, piano
Con-tact-versation, violin, fixed media
Et Angustia, 7 players
Evokation, flute, viola, double bass, piano, 2 percussion
Monolog, flute, live electronics
Movimenti, flute, piano
Solosonate, violin
CHORAL:
Halotti beszéd – Grabrede (cantata, text from an anonymous 12th-century text from Hungary), alto, baritone, mixed chorus, orchestra, 2003–04
Missa da Pacem – Kyrie, Gloria, mixed chorus
VOCAL:
Air, baritone, organ, fixed media, 1978
Disperatione (texts by Anne Frank, the Bible), soprano, baritone, flute, oboe, French horn, trombone, piano, harpsichord, 3 percussion
Drei Lieder auf Gedichte von Endre Ady (text by Endre Ady), voice, piano
Ein Psalm, alto, violin, organ
PIANO:
Drei Klavierstücke
ORGAN:
Dialogue I, 1970
Dialogue II – Myohorengekyo, organ, fixed media, 1971
Mixtur, 1974
Work in progress, 4 organs, 1987
Strophen, organ, fixed media, 1988, revised 2001
B-A-C-H 'Hommage à...', 1994
Sospiro, 2000
Lacrimosa, 2001
Feuertaufe, 2004
Moving Colours, 2006
Vibro (Zsongás), 2007
Janus, 2008
Leichte Brise, großer Orkan, 2011
Memory of Franz Liszt, 2011
Bremer Dommusik, 2 organs, 2013
Sonido Ibérico, 2014
mors et vita, 2015
Gloria
Stück, organ 4 hands, fixed media