Sospeso begins its 2002/2003 concert season with a portrait of Hungarian composer György Kurtág, whose intensely emotional music achieved international recognition in spite of his life in Hungary under communism—a recognition that culminated with the Siemens Music Prize in 1998, the Nobel of music awards.  Fulvia De Colle writes Kurtág is "a living composer in every respect: in his continuous play of signs and messages, Kurtág establishes links among musics past and present — and, above all, between the artist and audience."

Four works provide four views of the composer's imagination.  The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza is an exuberant evocation of the journey through life, by turns passionate and absurd, with virtuoso writing for the soprano and piano.  The rarely performed Scenes from a Novel finds Kurtag imagining a gypsy band of his fantasies:  fifteen miniature songs span the distance between minimalism and Gustav Mahler.  And Kurtág's deep commitment to the history of music is evident in his Homage to R. Sch., or Robert Schumann; Anthony Burton writes that the work "is an act of homage from one great miniaturist to another."