LIGETI: Works for Piano, 2 Pianos, and Piano 4-Hands

Ligeti: Complete Études

LIGETI: CELLO CONCERTO, PIANO

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Classical Music

Ligeti's Cello Concert - particularly when combined, as here, with Lontano - offers a wonderful introduction to the maestro's music, and Siegfried Palm, to whom the work is dedicated, is it's ideal interpreter. Siegfried Palm: violoncello / Sinfonie-Orchester des Hessischen Rundfunks, Frankfurt/Main / Michael Gielen: conductor / Sinfonie-Orchester des S�dwestfunks, Baden-Baden / Ernest Bour: conductor / Gunilla von Bahr: flute / Torleif L�nnerholm: oboe / Sinfonie-Orchester des Schwedischen Rundfunks / Elgar Howarth: conductor.

This CD of works by the Hungarian composer Gy�rgy Ligeti represents an extremely interesting combination of several of his serene works for harpsichord, organ, and wind quintet with two electronic compositions from the late 1950's. Antoinette Vischer: harpsichord / Bl�serquintett des S�dwestfunks Baden-Baden / Elektronisches Studio des Westdeutschen Rundfunks, K�ln / Zsigmond Szathm�ry: organ / Karl-Erik Welin: organ.

Musica Ricercata of 1951-53 is a collection of 11 piano pieces which even with their traditional character went beyond what was considered appropriate for performance in Hungary in the early 1950s. The tenth piece, e.g., was considered too "decadent" because of the abundance of minor seconds. The short "Capriccios" and "Invention", written in 1947-48, reveal convincingly the emergence of Ligeti's musical identity. "Monument � Selbstportrait � Bewegung" (three pieces for two pianos) was written in 1976 while Ligeti was working on the opera "Le Grand Macabre". The conception of these three pieces arose from the inherent technical possibilities afforded by the simultaneous playing of the two pianos. Ligeti works here with processes which develop consequently from an initial core to unfurl in great complexity.

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Described as ‘one of the most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time’, György Ligeti (1923 – 2006) was able to constantly reinvent himself. In his earliest works, written in Communist Hungary, the musical language is often an extension of that of Bartók’s and he kept his most daring compositions to himself. Escaping Hungary in 1956 he was able to revel in the freedom to experiment – with electronic techniques as well as elaborate serialism – but he was forever sceptical of schools and steered his own course throughout life. The 1960s and early 70s were a highly productive period, which saw works such as Lux Aeterna and Lontano, as well as three of the works on the present disc. In the Cello Concerto and the Chamber Concerto, Ligeti in different ways explores the idea of the concerto as something collective, rather than polarised between the one and the many. The Cello Concerto is striking, and even provocative, in that the soloist often seems to aspire to silence and even absence rather than virtuosic display. The Chamber Concerto, on the other hand, dazzles because here all 13 players are unmistakably present, all essential to the design and character of the whole. Like the Cello Concerto – and the Piano Concerto – Melodien can be performed by large orchestra, but also, as on the present recording, with a single string player per part, becoming a natural pendant to the Chamber Concerto. The disc closes with the Piano Concerto from 1988, which Ligeti had begun sketching eight years earlier but was only able to proceed with after having composed his first set of studies for piano solo. Ligeti himself described the five-movement work as a statement of his ‘aesthetic credo’. Performing these complex scores is the Norwegian specialist ensemble BIT 20 under the Swiss conductor Baldur Brönnimann, with soloists Christian Poltéra and Joonas Ahonen, making his first appearance on the BIS label.

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The Ensemble Intercontemporain and its new music director Pierre Bleuse pay homage to György Ligeti, whose centenary we celebrated in 2023: ‘Ligeti is one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century and certainly one of those who first made a powerful aesthetic impact on me personally!... This recording, which combines concertos and chamber music, highlights the EIC’s qualities as soloists and chamber musicians. And I’m not forgetting that Ligeti is an integral part of the repertoire of the Ensemble, which has performed his works extensively… So this is an ideal way of beginning my own story with the EIC’, says Pierre Bleuse, who brings his personal conception to these works and seeks to approach each score like ‘a virgin forest’. A noteworthy feature here is the new cadenza composed by Philippe Maunoury for the Violin Concerto, with Hae-Sun Kang as soloist. Renaud Déjardin (cello) and Dimitri Vassilakis (piano) perform the other concertos of this tribute program.

REVIEW:

The Paris ensemble’s new music director Bleuse sets out his stall with a wonderful all-Ligeti disc that honors a composer it has long been associated with. The violin concerto and the concerto for piano and orchestra are among the works on this beautifully realized recording. Utterly engrossing.

-- The Sunday Times (U.K.)