Search - Gyorgy Ligeti, Michael Gielen, Ernest Bour :: Ligeti: Cello Concerto, Lontano, Double Concerto, San Francisco Polyphony

Sound made plastic

Andrew Hansen | Chicago, IL USA | 12/10/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti has received a great deal of exposure at the hands of Stanley Kubrick and has lately surfaced to become one of the giants of the "postwar avant garde". Interesting, because it was difficult for me to find recordings of his music or information about him only five years ago. While Sony trudges ahead with their "Ligeti Edition", this Wergo disc remains one of my favorites by any artist in any genre."Lontano" was featured in 'The Shining' and is a cousin to "Atmospheres", which is the Star Gate music in 2001. It is a slow moving (almost motionless) study of changing tone colors with just a touch of blurred conventional harmony thrown in. It is more "relaxing" than Atmospheres, but it's not the sort of thing one would want to fall asleep to.The remainder of the selections on this disc feature Ligeti bouncing between his two main interests of the late 60's and early 70's. They alternate between static tone color collage (like "Lontano") to very busy (lots of notes) overlapping lines that aren't so much counterpoints of each other as they are at cooperative odds - a number of sounds chattering at once, coming in and out of controlled focus. It's like listening to blood circulate, or cells divide at high speed, or any other such microscopic activitiy you can imagine that seems like a blob from a distance but is made up of tiny parts upon closer inspection.It is possible that Sony will get around to recording these works eventually. If so, I'm sure I'll be there to put my money down. But I doubt my fondness for this recording will diminish."

Sounds like clouds or plants

Thomas Dworschak | 05/06/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I like Ligeti's orchestral works very much because of the fuller sounds. Especially in "Lontano", you can hear how chords and sound structures slowly dissolve and new ones are formed. The composer himself has added interesting notes to the CD in which he explains what his idea was when he composed these pieces (all are from about 1970)."