The Ligeti Project

The Ligeti Project

The Ligeti Project
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CD Details

Composer: Various
Conductor: Various
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Box set
CD Release Date: 2008-05-20
Music Label: Warner Classics
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Melodien, for orchestra (or chamber orchestra)
  2. Chamber Concerto, for 13 instruments: 1. Corrente (FlieĂ?end)
  3. Chamber Concerto, for 13 instruments: 2. Calmo, sostenuto
  4. Chamber Concerto, for 13 instruments: 3. Movimento preciso e meccanico
  5. Chamber Concerto, for 13 instruments: 4. Presto
  6. Piano Concerto: 1. Vivace molto ritmico e preciso
  7. Piano Concerto: 2. Lento e deserto
  8. Piano Concerto: 3. Vivace cantabile
  9. Piano Concerto: 4. Allegro risoluto, molto ritmico
  10. Piano Concerto: 5. Presto luminoso
  11. Mysteries of the Macabre, for soprano & ensemble, or trumpet & piano/ensemble (arr. from 'Le Grand Macabre' by E.Howarth)
Music CD 2
  1. Lontano, for orchestra
  2. Atmosphères, for large orchestra
  3. Apparitions, for orchestra: 1. Lento
  4. Apparitions, for orchestra: 2. Agitato
  5. San Francisco Polyphony, for orchestra
  6. Concert Românesc, for orchestra: 1. Andantino
  7. Concert Românesc, for orchestra: 2. Allegro vivace
  8. Concert Românesc, for orchestra: 3. Adagio ma non troppo
  9. Concert Românesc, for orchestra: 4. Molto vivace
Music CD 3
  1. Cello Concerto: 1st Movement
  2. Cello Concerto: 2nd Movement
  3. Clocks and Clouds, for female voices & orchestra
  4. Violin Concerto: 1. Vivacissimo luminoso
  5. Violin Concerto: 2. Aria, Hoquetus, Choral. Andante con moto
  6. Violin Concerto: 3. Intermezzo. Presto fluido
  7. Violin Concerto: 4. Passacglia. Lento intenso
  8. Violin Concerto: 5. Appassionato. Agitato molto
  9. Sippal, dobbal, nádihegeduvel (With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles), for mezzo-soprano & percussion esemble: 1. Fabula
  10. Sippal, dobbal, nádihegeduvel (With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles), for mezzo-soprano & percussion esemble: 2. Táncdal
  11. Sippal, dobbal, nádihegeduvel (With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles), for mezzo-soprano & percussion esemble: 3. Kínai templom
  12. Sippal, dobbal, nádihegeduvel (With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles), for mezzo-soprano & percussion esemble: 4. Kuli
  13. Sippal, dobbal, nádihegeduvel (With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles), for mezzo-soprano & percussion esemble: 5. Alma álma
  14. Sippal, dobbal, n�¡dihegeduvel (With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles), for mezzo-soprano & percussion esemble: 6. Keser�©des
  15. Sippal, dobbal, n�¡dihegeduvel (With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles), for mezzo-soprano & percussion esemble: 7. Szajk�³
Music CD 4
  1. Hamburg Concerto, for horn & chamber orchestra with 4 obbligato natural horns: 1. Praeludium
  2. Hamburg Concerto, for horn & chamber orchestra with 4 obbligato natural horns: 2. Signale, Tanz, Choral
  3. Hamburg Concerto, for horn & chamber orchestra with 4 obbligato natural horns: 3. Aria, Aksak, Hoketus
  4. Hamburg Concerto, for horn & chamber orchestra with 4 obbligato natural horns: 4. Solo, Intermezzo, Mixtur, Kanon
  5. Hamburg Concerto, for horn & chamber orchestra with 4 obbligato natural horns: 5. Spectra
  6. Hamburg Concerto, for horn & chamber orchestra with 4 obbligato natural horns: 6. Capriccio
  7. Hamburg Concerto, for horn & chamber orchestra with 4 obbligato natural horns: 7. Hymnus
  8. Double Concerto, for flute, oboe & orchestra: 1. Calmo, con tenerezza
  9. Double Concerto, for flute, oboe & orchestra: 2. Allegro corrente
  10. Ramifications, for 12 strings (or string orchestra)
  11. Requiem, for soprano, mezzo-soprano, 2 choruses & orchestra: 1. Introitus. Sostenuto
  12. Requiem, for soprano, mezzo-soprano, 2 choruses & orchestra: 2. Kyrie. Molto espressivo
  13. Requiem, for soprano, mezzo-soprano, 2 choruses & orchestra: 3. De die judicii sequentia. Subito. Agitato molto
  14. Requiem, for soprano, mezzo-soprano, 2 choruses & orchestra: 4. Lacrimosa. Molto lento
Music CD 5
  1. Aventures, for 3 voices & 7 instruments
  2. Nouvelles aventures, for 3 voices & 7 instruments: Nouvelles Aventures I
  3. Nouvelles aventures, for 3 voices & 7 instruments: Nouvelles Aventures II
  4. Artikulation, for tape
  5. Musica ricercata, pieces (11) for piano: 1. Sostenuto
  6. Musica ricercata, pieces (11) for piano: 2. Allegro con spirito
  7. Musica ricercata, pieces (11) for piano: 3. Tempo di Valse (poco vivace - Ă  l'orgue d Barbarie)
  8. Musica ricercata, pieces (11) for piano: 4. Con moto, giusto - Cantabile, molto legato
  9. Musica ricercata, pieces (11) for piano: 5. Vivace. Energico
  10. Musica ricercata, pieces (11) for piano: 6. (BĂ©la BartĂłk in memoriam) Adagio. Mesto - Allegretto maestoso
  11. Musica ricercata, pieces (11) for piano: 7. Vivace. Capriccioso
  12. Musica ricercata, pieces (11) for piano: 8. (Omaggio a Girolam Rescobaldi) Andante misurato e tranquillo
  13. Sonata for cello: 1. Dialogo. Adagio, rubato, cantabile
  14. Sonata for cello: 2. Capriccio. Presto con slancio
  15. The Big Turtle-Fanfare from the South China Sea
  16. Ballad and Dance (Balada si joc), for school orchestra: Andantino
  17. Ballad and Dance (Balada si joc), for school orchestra: Allegro vivace, energisch
  18. Old Hungarian Parlor Dances (Régi magyar társas táncok), for strings and flute (or clarinet) ad lib

Music reviews of The Ligeti Project

Music Review: The foundation of a complete Ligeti library
Rating: 5 Stars

Like Beethoven and Stravinsky, Ligeti's output divides rather neatly into three distinct style periods. First are the early works from Ligeti's pre-flight years. These are a combination of juvenilia, Eastern European folklorist works, pieces inhabiting a Bartókian sound world, and the occasional bit of internationalist or modernist experimentation that hints at what was to come. Most of these works are of minor importance beyond the world of Ligeti immersion. But a handful, such as the First String Quartet, and a few of the movements from Musica Ricercata, are worthy of his more mature works.

The heart of Ligeti's output, and the basis for the consensus that places him among postmodernism's greatest composers, is the series of masterworks written during his middle period which lasted from roughly 1957 (after his escape from Hungary) to 1977 (marked by the completion of his opera Le Grand Macabre). The "sound surface" compositions from the period, including Atmosphères, the Requiem, Lux Aeterna and much of the Second String Quartet, fall into a genre of acoustic music that was not unique to Ligeti -- it's also associated with Penderecki and Xenakis, and more peripherally with composers like Lutoslawski -- but Ligeti was arguably the greatest of the lot. Central to this musical language is the elevation of timbre as the most important musical parameter, supplanting the traditional pitch-priority that had been dominant in Western art music since its inception. Ligeti's vocabulary in these works consists largely of tone clusters, either in sustained notes, or as the unfolding of many rapidly moving chromatically undulating lines, in both cases creating a composite texture where the primary impression is of the resulting tone color, rather than the melodic or harmonic implications of any individual instrumental line. It was this music that was brought to wider attention through its use to accompany the monolith and stargate sequences in 2001: A Space Odyssey, leading many to think of it as "space music".

Other works from this period follow a model developed in Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures, which are closer to the serial pointillist style of many post-WW2 composers, but with an emphasis on color and rhythmic gestures in a way characteristic of Ligeti (and more musically interesting than many of the more formulaic works of Ligeti's colleagues). A third kind of work from this period explores polymeters and rhythmic phase patterns. In the former category falls the third movements from the both the Chamber Concerto and Second String Quartet. In the latter category would be Continuum and the Three Pieces for Two Pianos.

Le Grand Macabre, by far the lengthiest of Ligeti's works, represented a culmination of his middle period work, and additionally introduced an element of postmodern pastiche. After this, Ligeti seemed to feel that he had reached a dead end. Not wanting to go on rewriting works like Atmosphères and Aventures over and over, Ligeti, like Beethoven, fell relatively silent for a few years. Then, in 1982, the horn trio, followed by the first of the piano etudes, launched a third style period. These late works represent somewhat of a conservative retrenchment from Ligeti's more experimental middle period works, in rather the same way that Stravinsky's neoclassical period represented a step back from the experimentation of his youth. Many of Ligeti's late works, including the horn trio, are unabashedly neoclassical, and return to an emphasis on pitch-priority and musical gestures. Still Ligeti resisted the most hackneyed temptations to which some of his colleagues succumbed (e.g., Penderecki's and Rochberg's forgettable attempts to time travel back to the 19th Century).

Several of these late works have found considerable favor with performers, as they are generally (but not always!) easier to perform, eschew the extended playing techniques of Ligeti's earlier works, and are less challenging for casual listeners. But I'm confident that Ligeti's historical legacy will ultimately depend on posterity's judgment of his middle period works, rather than the more conventional compositions written between 1982 and the end of his career in roughly 2001.

Teldec's Ligeti Project comprises five CDs that focus mainly on the large ensemble works that Sony apparently didn't have the money to record in their Ligeti Edition CDs (though Sony did manage to release Le Grand Macabre which is probably the most expensive of all to put on). Taken together, as other reviewers have pointed out, these five Teldec albums and the eight Sony albums give you almost the entire Ligeti oeuvre. Some piano music is missing: three of the four Piano Etudes from Book 3, the Three Bagatelles written for David Tudor in 1961, and a work of juvenilia called Chromatic Fantasy that Ligeti withdrew. Also missing is the string orchestra version of Ramifications (though you do get the version for 12 solo strings in LP4), and the tape piece Glissandi from 1957 (which may have been withdrawn by the composer, but is still available on an old Wergo recording). A third sort tape piece, simply called Pièce Électronique No. 3, was sketched in 1958, but not realized until a 1996 residency in the Netherlands. Also nice to have is the original German version of Le Grand Macabre, which you might be able to track down from another Wergo recording. A single-LP edition from Wergo condensed the opera to half its length, a concise and very enjoyable version, but one not currently available on CD as far as I can tell.

But back to Teldec's contribution: with this five-CD boxed set, you get all the liner notes from the five standalone Ligeti Project CDs, but not the accompanying photos and score excerpts. The latter in particular is a shame, since examining a Ligeti score can be highly illuminating. Unlike Penderecki, Cage and Stockhausen, Ligeti always used conventional musical notation and often notated music in 4/4 time even when no pulse was supposed to be heard. One such example is the excerpt from the Kyrie of the Requiem (supplied in LP4 but missing from this set). In addition to being in 4/4, it clearly shows the division of the chorus into five sections (rather than the customary four) with each one representing a fugal voice that is in turn comprised of a kind of four-part canon in augmentation where the clusters fan out from a single unison starting pitch. Nevertheless, purchasing the box set has its advantages: you'll take up about one-third the space on your CD shelf, and you'll probably get a nice discount over buying all five albums individually (though some will suggest, not unreasonably, that the fifth CD is largely redundant).

I don't regret my purchase, and I even had two of the standalone CDs in my collection already (I gave them to my sister-in-law). If you're interested enough in Ligeti to have read through this review to the end, and you can afford this set, then I think you too will not regret indulging in it, and enjoying a few hours of the finest of Ligeti. Scoop up the Sony disks too while you can, and maybe add one of the CD sets of Ligeti's complete piano music to pick up the missing keyboard works, giving you a more-or-less complete collection.

If dollars are a little scarce, or you're not a convinced Ligeti fan/completist, you might consider getting only LP2, LP4 and LE1. Add either LP5 or LE4 for Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures, and perhaps LE6 for the harpsichord, organ and piano duo pieces, and you'll have most of the essential works in a few CDs. Or indulge in the four-CD Deutsche Grammophon set, and you'll accomplish much the same thing for roughly the same price. The DG disks have the advantage that every track is an important piece of music (no early period fluff to contend with), but this does make it harder to add in the missing pieces later if you want to fill out your collection. Either way, sit back with open ears and mind, some good headphones and a quiet place -- and scores if you can find them at your local library -- and transport yourself back to the heady days of the 1960s or 1970s, and imagine (or relive) being blown away by these sounds when hearing them for the first time.
More The Ligeti Project free music reviews:
1

Description of The Ligeti Project

This 5 CD set features works that enchant both the ear and mind. The box features favorites such as Lontano.
Its refined tonal colors make it one of the most elegant pieces in the modernist canon. The Berlin Philharmonic
performs Apparitions, Ligeti s first success in the West after his escape from Hungary during the 1956 Soviet
invasion. Under its colorful façade, San Francisco Polyphony demonstrates how uncompromising modern music
can be. Concert românesc, harks back to Bartók s transformations of folk material. Rich in color and vitality, its
four movements are full of the dissonances of village bands and melodies rooted in Romanian folk music.
György Sándor Ligeti (1923-2006) was born in Romania to a Hungarian Jewish family and lived in Hungary
before later becoming an Austrian citizen. Many of his works are well known in classical music circles, but to
the general public, he is best known for the various pieces featured in the Stanley Kubrick films 2001: A Spac e
Odyssey, The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut.
Works in the set include:
Melodien
Chamber Concerto
Piano Concerto (Pierre-Laurent Aimard)
*Mysteries of the Macabre (Peter Masseurs)
Lontano
Atmostpheres
*Asparitions
San Francisco Sykmphony
Cello Concerto
*Clocks and Clouds
Violin Concerto
*Sippal, dobbal, nadihegeduvel
*Concert românesc
Hamburg Concerto
Double Concerto
Ramifications
Requiem
*Adventures, Nouvelles Adventures
Artikulation for Tape
Eight Pieces from Musica ricercata
Sonata for Cello Solo (David Geringas)
Big Turtle Fanfare for the South China Sea
Balada si joc
Regi Magyar tarsas tancok.
*Original world premiere recording

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