Kagel's music is often referenced in terms of its theatricality and absurdist edge, but this reading tends to overshadow his very significant musical gifts. Kagel was one of the masters of the postwar avant-garde, and deserves to be ranked with more well-known names like Berio, Boulez, Ligeti, Stockhausen. Kagel's music was experimental, audacious and uncompromising, but rarely inaccessible, especially from the 1980s until his death in 2008. The works for flute collected here are especially lyrical and inviting, synthesizing traditional harmonic and melodic impulses within a modernist, personal vernacular. The music is extraordinarily affecting, and rewards the attentive listener with a kaleidoscopic array of moods and textures. Highly recommended.
