- Audio CD (14 April 2003)
- SPARS Code: DDD
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: CLASSICAL
- ASIN: B00008UVCE
- Other Editions: MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 118,776 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Teldec's invaluable Ligeti series continues with The Ligeti Project IV, featuring the 2002 revision of the Hamburg Concerto for horn and chamber orchestra with four obbligato natural horns. Its seven short movements explore different facets of Ligeti's unique sound world. Harmonically adventurous, this is an accessible work, witty, dramatic and full of startling sonorities. There is brilliant playing here by all, especially virtuoso horn soloist Marie Luise Neunecker. The disc's earliest piece is the Requiem (Ligeti set only four movements of the traditional Mass). Completed in 1965, the Requiem centres on the large chorus, whose thickly written "Kyrie" fugue (best known from its use on the soundtrack of 2001: A Space Odyssey) and over-the-top wild "Dies Irae" place enormous demands on the singers that are brilliantly met here. In between the larger works come the 1972 Double Concerto for Flute and Oboe and Ramifications, a quarter-tone piece for 12 strings from 1969. For all their advanced tonal and rhythmic gestures, they make for fascinating listening, like everything else on this disc. --Dan Davis, Amazon.com
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
A fascinating journey through Ligeti's output, these works are placed in reverse chronological order, ie, the newest first. This makes sense, given that the oldest piece, the shattering Requiem, is an impossible act to follow.
I was immediately impressed with the recent Hamburg Concerto in a way that I wasn't quite with the concerto works for violin and piano. The horn sonorities are unexpectedly weird, even for Ligeti, and the brevity of the starkly contrasted movements make this piece easy to grasp.
The Double Concerto for oboe and flute, in which the flautist plays a range of flutes, features some utterly beautiful low flute (bass flute?) playing that manages to upstage the legendary oboe player (and composer), Holliger.
A fine performance of Ramifications still can't convince me that this a A-grade Ligeti.
Finally, the Requiem. This is only the second recording of this seminal work. Other large-scale choral works from that period have fared better. Penderecki's St Luke Passion has been recorded at least four times, Messiaen's Transfiguration, at least five.
The orchestra and soloists are beautifully caught in this recording. My one problem with this CD is that the chorus sometimes seems a bit distant. I've heard the Requiem in concert (in the flesh twice and a few times over the radio) and I've got Gielen's CD and the 2001: A Space Odyssey soundtrack with the Bavarian Radio performance of the Kyrie. In every other performance, the extraordinary passage for the tenors (two minutes into the Kyrie just before the first climax, in which the tenors whirl out of the choral mass, almost yelping and wailing) has been one of the most terrifying and unearthly sounds I've EVER heard. And I've heard a lot of Penderecki and Stockhausen. In this new performance, however, it hardly registers. It's only a niggling point, a few seconds in an otherwise shattering performance, but I do feel a bit cheated.
That one, very personal, grumble aside, this is another stunner from Teldec. Don't hesitate.
I was immediately impressed with the recent Hamburg Concerto in a way that I wasn't quite with the concerto works for violin and piano. The horn sonorities are unexpectedly weird, even for Ligeti, and the brevity of the starkly contrasted movements make this piece easy to grasp.
The Double Concerto for oboe and flute, in which the flautist plays a range of flutes, features some utterly beautiful low flute (bass flute?) playing that manages to upstage the legendary oboe player (and composer), Holliger.
A fine performance of Ramifications still can't convince me that this a A-grade Ligeti.
Finally, the Requiem. This is only the second recording of this seminal work. Other large-scale choral works from that period have fared better. Penderecki's St Luke Passion has been recorded at least four times, Messiaen's Transfiguration, at least five.
The orchestra and soloists are beautifully caught in this recording. My one problem with this CD is that the chorus sometimes seems a bit distant. I've heard the Requiem in concert (in the flesh twice and a few times over the radio) and I've got Gielen's CD and the 2001: A Space Odyssey soundtrack with the Bavarian Radio performance of the Kyrie. In every other performance, the extraordinary passage for the tenors (two minutes into the Kyrie just before the first climax, in which the tenors whirl out of the choral mass, almost yelping and wailing) has been one of the most terrifying and unearthly sounds I've EVER heard. And I've heard a lot of Penderecki and Stockhausen. In this new performance, however, it hardly registers. It's only a niggling point, a few seconds in an otherwise shattering performance, but I do feel a bit cheated.
That one, very personal, grumble aside, this is another stunner from Teldec. Don't hesitate.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
My comments are not a detailed critique of Ligeti,but to merely say I am on a journey of exploration of the mans music.If music creates an emotion then its meaningful-such is the effect of Ligetis compositions.Reqium for me is a masterpiece, the stirring of emotions can be overwhelming,no matter how often it is heard,and yes like many others I was introduced by the vision of Kubrik within 2001.If you are new to modern classical music then just keep listening, would recommend Atmospheres and Lux Auterna by Ligetti and to check out Penderecki, Xenakis,Birtwistle and of course Stockhausen.Just keep an open mind and be moved.
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This has to be the best classical album i've heard in recen years. Although Ligeti is not immediately accesible, as the background music for 2001 it arguably created the mystique the final portion of the film. Listening to the Kyrie from the Requiem again, you are again amazed by the sheer scariness of it. There may be no tune, and it may just sound like the wind howling, but it creates an amazing atmosphere. The Dies Irae which follows, which is at the same time insanely violent and comic, is also one of the most awe-inspiring pieces of classical composition. The rest of the disc is typical 20th century modern music, atonal and dischordant, but for the Requiem alone it is wirth it. And, before people dismiss this as some 'muso' talking, i only heard this from studying Ligeti at A-Level, and usually listen to U2, Yes, Eric Clapton etc. So it is accesible for anyone!!
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