Teenager György Kurtág’s House
Before leaving Lugoj, his native town, to study at the Conservatory Timișoara (piano with Marga Kardos, harmony and counterpoint with Max Eisikovits) and at the Academy of Music Budapest, Jewish Hungarian composer György Kurtág lived at 19, Xenopol Street.
The building is located in the eastern area of downtown German part of Lugoj, between the town’s historical nucleus and the railway. The surrounding urban tissue consists mainly of individual, ground floor habitations of generally continuous fronts. Most of the neighbouring constructions are of the sub-urban types, specific to the turn of the 20th century – L-shaped, the short side turned towards the street and the long one advancing deep in the lot.
Young György Kurtág’s house is simple, with a basement and a ground floor. Withdrawn, it doesn’t align to the surrounding continuous front. The courtyard is accessible by the south-east side. The front door is hidden from view, as entry is made through the courtyard and the utility rooms. The main rooms face the street.
The symmetry of the façade is underlined by the central jetty, each of its constitutive segments featuring two windows grouped and unified by a straight, simple frame and a shared window sill. The façade still preserves the original woodwork, double leaf wooden windows with vertical and oblique sash bars. It also shows traces of recent renovation during which the base was covered by stone and the façade itself most probably covered in polystyrene, some of those valuable historical details possibly lost in the process.
Sadly, no plaque or other type of commemorative marking indicates that great György Kurtág lived here.
References:
Szűcs Blănaru, Amalia. Max Eisikovits, György Kurtág, György Ligeti – trei compozitori din România [Max Eisikovits, György Kurtág, György Ligeti – Three Composers from Romania]. Symbolon Volume XIX. Special Number. Music