Andras Schiff
Photo: Sheila Rock
Hungarian composer György Kurtág and Hungarian pianist András Schiff, are awarded this year’s Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal. Kurtág will receive the Gold Medal at a concert in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Sunday 1 December. The presentation to Schiff will take place at the Wigmore Hall on Saturday 21 December, following his recital of Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations in a concert celebrating his 60th birthday.
The Gold Medal, the Royal Philharmonic Society’s highest honour, was created in 1870 to commemorate the centenary of Beethoven’s birth and celebrates the close relationship between the Society and the composer (the RPS commissioned Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and championed his work). Kurtág and Schiff join an illustrious list of RPS Gold Medallists including Brahms, Elgar, Richard Strauss, John Barbirolli, Kathleen Ferrier, Stravinsky, Britten and Horowitz. Recent recipients include Dame Mitsuko Uchida, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Thomas Quasthoff, Henri Dutilleux and Daniel Barenboim.
