It begins with silence, followed by near inaudible rumblings and a sense that something – an atmosphere – migh be growing in intensity. These words could accurately describe György Ligeti’s pivotal orchestral work Apparitions (1959), but equally they apply to the premiere of his most provocative yet rarely revisited conceptual piece, The Future of Music – a Collective Composition. ‘The Future of Music’ was the title of a ten-minute lecture that Ligeti had been asked to give in 1961 at a European forum in the village of Altbach, Austria. He felt unable to predict the future. He agreed on the understanding that, as he had nothing to say, he would literally say nothing. For ten minutes, then, he stood silently on the rostrum, and when his audience shuffled with impatience, he wrote instructions on the blackboard: “Don’t let yourself be manipulated!”… “Crescendo”… “Più forte”.
A vociferous crowd duly responded.