The lasting influence of Hungarian music and artists on European mainstream culture extends hundreds of years, from as far back as Haydn through to one of today’s most celebrated composers, György Kurtág. As part of the Hungarian Ministry of Culture’s Hungarian Culture Year in 2009, Carnegie Hall presents two weeks of folk, symphonic, and new music, as well as educational programs performed by today’s most noted Hungarian musicians. This celebration includes the first New York appearances of Kurtág performing his own music with his wife, pianist Márta Kurtág, plus performances of seldom-heard traditional folk music. Concluding the events is a performance of the great Austrio-Hungarian court composer Haydn’s hugely influential choral masterwork The Creation.