The gate opens. The music should sound solemn and magnificent, like an overture: majestic, like Beethoven’s Eroica. That is how Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti begins...

The gate opens. The music should sound solemn and magnificent, like an overture: majestic, like Beethoven’s Eroica. That is how Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti begins Musica ricercata, one of his early works from the early 1950s. In exemplary fashion, the cycle blends minimalist structures with a sumptuous array of colors. Behind each note lurks the exigency that nothing should escape the pianist’s attention: he should be aware of all that takes place in the present, while remaining prepared for everything that can occur in the next moment. Such challenges await the performer in Ligeti as well as in Beethoven. Long before he thought of coupling the works by Beethoven and Ligeti on album, Herbert Schuch had tried out the combination in the concert hall. “I quickly get a feel whether a programme works well, or whether it’s just something I’ve conceived in my head. Of course I was aware that these cycles were never intended to be picked apart. I find it important to feel assured that I’m not undermining their essence, and that the new order also makes sense. Such a coupling would certainly not work in the case of a sonata.”