London gold goes to two Hungarians

The pianist Andras Schiff and composer György Kurtág (pictured) will each receive the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, one of the senior music awards.

Details below.

(c) Lebrecht Music&Arts

The influential composer, György Kurtág, and the distinguished pianist András Schiff, are to be awarded one of music’s most esteemed honours, the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal. The medals will be presented in London in December, the culmination of a year of transatlantic concerts, talks, exhibitions and events celebrating the bicentenary of the Royal Philharmonic Society throughout 2013.

The Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, the Royal Philharmonic Society’s highest honour, was created to commemorate the centenary of Beethoven’s birth in 1870 and celebrates the close relationship between the Society and the composer (the RPS commissioned Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and championed his work). György Kurtág and András Schiff join an illustrious list of current RPS Gold Medallists: Sir Simon Rattle, Dame Janet Baker, Daniel Barenboim, Dame Mitsuko Uchida, Thomas Quasthoff, Sir Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Alfred Brendel, Placido Domingo, Pierre Boulez and Claudio Abbado.

György Kurtág will be presented with the RPS Gold Medal on Sunday 1 December at 3pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.

András Schiff will be presented with the RPS Gold Medal on his 60th birthday, on Saturday 21 December at 7.30pm, Wigmore Hall, London.