Classical Music

All tracks have been digitally mastered using 24-bit technology.

Classical Music

Volume 3 of Morton Subotnick's Electronic Works contains the last of the analog multi-channel tape pieces to be released on DVD: '4 Butterflies', created on the Buchla synthesizer, previously only released as a stereo LP. It is presented with the visuals that were projected during it's early performances in the 1970s. These original 16mm films have been newly transferred and restored for this DVD.

The idea for a recital of ''Modern Lied'' came about over breakfast following the first concert Sun and Schulze performed together. Realizing that they enjoy the same things, Schulze said: ''Our next program should be harder. It should be the hardest program ever. We should put some of the greatest contemporary masterpieces of Lied in one program should be harder. It should be the hardest program ever. We should put some of the greatest contemporary masterpieces of Lied in one program. It should be just insanely beautiful and hard and most of all insanely good. No old stuff included.'' This recital is the result of that idea. The earliest work is Holliger's beautiful cycle on Morgenstern texts. It forms a bridge from traditional lieder to the modern. The Morgenstern Lieder have a completely different sense of harmony, very soft, somewhere between Debussy, Berg and Ravel.

Includes work(s) by James Tenney.

Alvin Lucier’s work has been more often described in terms of science than of art and his scores often contain experimental procedures. Lucier perfectly represents the fusion of a scientist with an artist. His pieces arise from an inspection of a pure physical phenomenon. The performers on Mode’s fourth disc of Lucier’s music are the Italian experimental music ensemble Alter Ego- two of the works were written for or dedicated to them- and Alvin Lucier himself. The interaction of electronic and acoustic sounds is the central point of Two Circles. These electronic sounds move from the same note in two glissandi, ascending and descending. The acoustic instruments interfere, generating beating from the interaction of closed frequencies. In some cases, these pulsations give the impression to expand the sonic space, whilst in others they appear to bring to an ending. The work is receiving here its first recording.

This 2-DVD collection features five films by Gerad Patris and Luc Ferrari. Produced by Service de La RecherchT under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer for ORTF. In French only. The films are "Olivier Messiaen : Et Expecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum" (1965), "Karlheinz Stockhausen : Momente" (1965), "Hommage a Edgar Varese" (1965, "Herman Scherchen : Quand un homme consacre sa vie a la musique" (1967)and "Cecil Taylor a Paris" (1966).

D'Arcy Philip Gray brings authoritative performances of Cage's works for solo percussionist. He worked with Cage in 1992 and extensively with David Tudor between 1995-96. Gray was also a musician in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (1993-95).

Classical Music

All tracks have been digitally mastered using 24-bit technology.

Also available on CD. Violin and viola players whisper over their instruments. A guitarist waits with the closest attention for the moment to make a gesture we might easily have missed. The tuba player rises to go over to the open piano, there to send sounds echoing into its interior. Two cellists, bowing with heavy pressure down near the tailpiece, produce an urgent rasping. From the timpanist comes the sudden fortissimo that seems to shock the music to a standstill...

Renowned German composer Helmut Lachenmann’s music is expressive in extraordinary ways, requiring the performers to play their instruments via unusual techniques, making for both compelling listening and viewing. Lachenmann performs in and supervises these recordings with Ensemble Signal, one of America’s leading New Music ensembles. In addition to performing as narrator in "...Zwei Gefühle ...“. Lachemann also is the soloist for three of his piano works.

These studio recordings followed an intensive four-concert tour of this programme. Lachenmann taught each musician of Ensemble Signal individually on his language of techniques for this project. Liner notes by Paul Griffiths. First in a series of Lachenmann on Mode Records.

The DVD version features all of the music with full video in 5.1 Surround Sound (Dolby and 24-bit DTS) as well as a dedicated stereo mix.

DVD BONUS: 20 minute documentary of Lachenmann in conversation with Seth Brodsky (Assistant Professor of Music at The University of Chicago), filmed at New York’s Miller Theatre.

Feldman's 'Trio' is a 105 minute work in one continuous movement, slowly and beautifully unfolding itself through it's long duration. Both Aki Takahashi and Rohan de Saram (formely of the Arditti Quartet) worked closely with Feldman.

THIS IS A STANDARD DVD WITH AUDIO ONLY (NO VISUALS). IT IS NOT A DVD-AUDIO AND WILL PLAY ON ALL DVD PLAYERS.

String Quartet No. 2 (1983)
FLUX Quartet
Tom Chiu, violin
Cornelius Duffalo, violin
Kenji Bunch, viola
Darrett Adkins, cello

Feldman's monumental String Quartet No.2 is in one unbroken movement. The FLUX Quartet performance is complete, lasting a total of 6 hours 7 minutes and 7 seconds. Available in 2 Editions: a 5-CD set OR complete and uninterrupted on 1-DVD!

In the 1970s Feldman took up the study and collecting of antique Turkish rugs, a highly evolved and exquisite folk art. The rugs are intricately patterned, symmetrical in basic design but with constant variation and displacement in the detailed execution of that design; strikingly and subtly colored, including fine variegations of principal colors resulting from the dyeing process. Analogies are clear to Feldman's music as it takes up large-scale patterning, partly working with his familiar subtle gradations of rhythm and instrumental color and ostinati, loops or extended repetitions of a sounds, partly - and especially in this second string quartet - continually finding new and surprising qualities of color. There are a number of sounds in this piece unlike anything one has heard from a string quartet.

Lasting more than six continuous hours, it is "a disorienting, transfixing experience that repeatedly approached and touched the sublime." - Alex Ross, in his review of the FLUX Quartet's New York City performance in The New Yorker.

String Quartet 2's score is 124 pages, at one tempo marking of 63-66 beats per minute - as such, a slow tempo. Feldman idiosyncratically sets the bars, so one page may last as little as about half a minute or as much as nearly seven minutes.

"A very exciting quartet composed of four young men...who have lots of ideas and clearly enjoy making music together," - Anthony Tommasini, NY Times, the FLUX Quartet has performed to rave reviews at many music centers around the world. FLUX have performed Quartet 2 in concert numerous times and know the score intimately. The FLUX Quartet's repertoire consists of notable pioneers as well as visionaries of tomorrow - from "classics" by Nancarrow, Ligeti, and Cage, to works by John Zorn, Ornette Coleman, Oliver Lake, and tenor balloonist Judy Dunaway.

This deluxe set features liner notes by Feldman's colleague Christian Wolff, mixing personal experiences and recollections with analysis; and by FLUX founder Tom Chiu who writes of the "experience" of performing such a large-scale work.

One can experience the work uninterrupted - complete, with no need to change discs - on the DVD Edition; along with the thrilling realism of uncompressed 24-bit PCM sound. This audio-only DVD can be played on any DVD player (note: there are no visuals).

For ease of navigation, both the DVD and CD versions have many track points (approximately every 5-6 pages of the score) which allow you to navigate through the disc(s) and the piece. The tracks are identical for both the DVD and CD.

Classical Music