The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks

Judit Varga is a highly respected representative of her generation of composers. Teaches at both the Vienna and Budapest Music Academies. Her work includes countless award-winning film scores and autonomous compositions. It was perhaps for this reason that she was commissioned by the Vienna Konzerthaus last year to compose a 70-minute piece for the Austrian Ensemble Phace to the Soviet silent film made in 1924. The piece is defined in the score as “entertaining art-music”.

“When Rico Gulda asked me in the name of the Wiener Konzert- haus to compose music for a western-comedy like bolshevik silent movie I was immediately brightened up. My enthuiasm did not last long, because he said immediately that it should not be film-music, but more an autonomous contemporary composition. To my argument, that the two genre are very far from each other, he answered only that “it mustn ́t be a problem, you will solve it”.

Well, you do not have to know about what kind of work it was, the only aim of this evening is to entertain you all. The fact, that it is possible by using the language of contemporary art-music was a new experience to me as well.” (Judit Varga)