Richart's bio-bibliography is a most welcome addition to the literature. For the first time, Richart has made available a comprehensive bibliography, discography, and up-to-date worklist. Ligeti's writings, writings about Ligeti, and reviews and analyses of his works, mainly after his 1956 flight from Hungary to the West, are listed and annotated. . . . Richart's short, concise biography is informative and well written. . . . Highly recommended for public, college, and university libraries with music collections.
Choice
Gyorgy Ligeti is one of the most significant of contemporary composers. Most often described as innovative, he has been able to combine beauty and emotional meaning with that innovation. This bio-bibliography describes rather than evaluates the considerable body of writings by and about Ligeti. The book is divided into four sections: biography, worklist, discography, and bibliography. The biography is a brief survey designed to acquaint the reader, if necessary, with the basic and widely available facts of Ligeti's life.
The bibliography is divided into two parts: writings by Ligeti and writings about him. The largest section in the latter part consists of concert and record reviews. Cross references link all items dealing with each individual music work. An appendix lists, in chronological order, all of the concerts devoted entirely to works by Ligeti. Writings listed in the bibliography are dated from the 1940s onward. The bulk of the material was written after Ligeti's flight to the west in 1956. This first book-length work on Gyorgy Ligeti will be welcomed by music scholars.