Peter Vigh
*10 August 1987
Works by Peter Vigh
Biography
Peter Vigh (1987) is a classical saxophonist and composer. He is the alto saxophonist and house arranger of the Berlage Saxophone Quartet, he composed a variety of compositions for leading musicians.
Totaliter Aliter was performed by Ensemble Black Pencil and the Netherlands Women Youth Choir, about which the press wrote: “Totaliter Aliter was of unearthly beauty.” (Brabants Dagblad), and the NRC gave it four stars. His first string quartet was premiered by the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam. He composed the oratorio Seven Years and Three Weeks (a story by Jan Brokken) for Cappella Amsterdam and his own quartet. He has also written for the Cello Biennale Amsterdam, Radio 4, November Music and for musicians such as Arno Bornkamp, members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Elisabeth Hetherington and Cello Octet Amsterdam.
Vigh studied composition with teachers Klaas de Vries, Fabio Nieder and Willem Jeths, and saxophone with Arno Bornkamp in Amsterdam and with Jean-Denis Michat in Lyon. In Berlin he studied chamber music with the Artemis Quartett, and he completed the master at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam cum laude.
About the music
Musical motifs unfold in Vigh's music like flowers, creating a unique space. His music moves between heaven and earth, unworldly transcendental spaces contrasted by dance, play and humor. He does not shy away from large forms, and is able to captivate for long stretches of time, and shape music of diverse characters into a coherent whole. Sometimes reminiscent of a conversation, and sometimes as vast landscapes with subtle timbres and gestures.
He incorporates his Hungarian roots, which are unmistakably present in his music into a completely authentic idiom; self-confident music, full of irony, surprise and ingenuity. He also doesn't shy away from big emotional gestures, but without needless sentimentality. In short, with his music he holds to the listener a mirror of life in all its aspects.
As an arranger Vigh translates the musical expressiveness, with detailed choices, to a new instrumentation, usually saxophone quartet.