Michael Gielen Edition, Vol. 10 - Music after 1945
In 2016, SWR Music launched the Michael Gielen Edition, charting the long and distinguished career of the German-Austrian conductor and composer who died in 2019. This tenth instalment contains over seven hours of music written after 1945 and includes several premiere recordings. The volume begins with Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Requiem for a Young Poet, a harrowing portrayal of the 20th century, and continues with Ligeti’s Requiem, George Crumb’s Star-Child, and works by Nono, Feldman, Kurtág, Kagel, Boulez and Cage. Gielen championed composers he believed in; with this final instalment listeners can experience some of the most extraordinary music of the 20th century.
REVIEWS:
There are no texts or translations of anything sung or spoken in the SWR booklet, but much other valuable information about the composers, the music and Gielen himself. In summary this is a highly valuable collection of superb performances of some elusive major works. It will serve very well anyone curious about mid-twentieth century classical music beyond—often far beyond—Britten, Shostakovich and Copland.
-- MusicWeb International
SWR Music has recently released the final volume in its Michael Gielen Edition. ‘Music After 1945’ includes works by Gielen himself and a kaleidoscopic range of other pieces, many of them masterworks: the Requiems of Bernd Alois Zimmermann (Requiem for a Young Poet) and György Ligeti, Boulez’s Notations Nos I-IV and VII and Rituel: in memoriam Bruno Maderna, Kagel’s Ein Brief, music by Nono, Crumb and Feldman (the wonderful Coptic Light), and perhaps the most striking rarities, Breath-Hammer-Lightning and Dome Peak by Jorge E López, where we’re warned of ‘extreme dynamics, both soft and loud’, with very good reason. Between 11'09" and 12'16" of Breath-Hammer-Lightning we have near silence shattered by an explosive wallop, then between 12'16" and 13'09" another void capped by violence, and so on. It may seem like a mere string of effects but it isn’t, believe me.
The one piece I’d take issue with is John Cage’s Piano Concerto, which has no score and where the pianist is free to arrange the 63 pages of the solo part as the mood dictates. Hence the piece is never the same twice. To these ears the emperor’s wardrobe suddenly flies open to reveal more new clothes than the average eye-or ear-could possibly take in. It’s one of the earliest recordings included here (1975) and, paradoxically, the one piece that is most definitely ‘of its time’. But hats off to Gielen for having had the courage to program it.
-- Gramophone
Product Description:
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Release Date: October 08, 2021
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Catalog Number: SWR19111CD
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UPC: 747313911189
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Label: SWR Classic
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Number of Discs: 6
Period: 20th Century, Contemporary
Composer: Bernd Alois Zimmermann, György Ligeti, George Crumb, JOrge E. López, Luigi Nono, Morton Feldman, Michael Gielen, György Kurtág, Mauricio Kagel, Pierre Boulez, John Cage
Conductor: Michael Gielen
Orchestra/Ensemble: Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
Performer: Isolde Siebert, Renate Behle, Richard Salter, Michael Rotschopf, Bernhard Schir, Liliana Poli, Barbro Ericson, Irene Gubrud, Armin Rosin, Klára Csordás, Claude Helffer
Works:
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Requiem for a Young Poet
Composer: Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Ensemble: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, SWR Vokalensemble, Kölner Rundfunkchor
Performer: Isolde Siebert (Soprano), Renate Behle (Soprano), Richard Salter (Baritone), Michael Rotschopf (Speaker), Bernhard Schir (Speaker)
Conductor: Michael Gielen
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Requiem
Composer: György Ligeti
Ensemble: Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks München, SWR Vokalensemble
Performer: Liliana Poli (Soprano), Barbro Ericson (Mezo-Soprano, Contralto)
Conductor: Michael Gielen
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Star-Child
Composer: George Crumb
Ensemble: Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Christophorus-Kantorei Altensteig, SWR Vokalensemble
Performer: Irene Gubrud (Soprano), Armin Rosin (Trombone)
Conductor: Michael Gielen
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Breath – Hammer – Lightning
Composer: Jorge E. López
Ensemble: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Conductor: Michael Gielen
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Dome Peak
Composer: Jorge E. López
Ensemble: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Conductor: Michael Gielen
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Variazioni canoniche
Composer: Luigi Nono
Ensemble: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Conductor: Michael Gielen
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A Carlo Scarpa, architetto, ai suoi infiniti possibili
Composer: Luigi Nono
Ensemble: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Conductor: Michael Gielen
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No hay caminos, hay que caminar ... Andrej Tarkowskij
Composer: Luigi Nono
Ensemble: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Conductor: Michael GIelen
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Coptic Light
Composer: Morton Feldman
Ensemble: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Conductor: Michael Gielen
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Vier Gedichte von Stefan George
Composer: MIchael Gielen
Ensemble: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, SWR Vokalensemble
Conductor: Michael Gielen
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Pflicht und Neigung
Composer: Michael Gielen
Ensemble: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Conductor: Michael Gielen
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Stele op. 33
Composer: György Kurtág
Ensemble: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Conductor: Michael Gielen
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Ein Brief
Composer: Mauricio Kagel
Ensemble: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Performer: Klára Csordás (Soprano)
Conductor: Michael Gielen
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Rituel - in memoriam Bruno Maderna
Composer: Pierre Boulez
Ensemble: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Conductor: Michael Gielen
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Notations I–IV und VII
Composer: Pierre Boulez
Ensemble: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Conductor: Michael GIelen
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Concert for piano and orchestra
Composer: John Cage
Ensemble: Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR
Performer: Claude Helffer (Piano)
Conductor: Michael Gielen