Search - Gyorgy Ligeti, Frank Peter Zimmerman, ASKO/Schonberg Ensemble :: The Ligeti Project III: Cello Concerto / Clocks & Clouds / Violin Concerto / Síppal, Dobbal, Nádihegedüvel

Essential Ligeti - for enthusiasts and newcomers alike

highriseuk | 02/08/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

""The Ligeti Project III" - the latest in this 'composer authorised' series is indispensable. Probably one of the best selections of Ligeti's music available, it spans four decades of creative genius, which the disc presents in chronological order. From the classic 1960s Cello Concerto, through the seminal "Clocks and Clouds" (1973), and the gorgeously inventive, dynamic and (occasionally) bizarre Violin Concerto of 1992, to one of his most recent pieces - the truly wonderful "Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel". The range and diversity of the pieces in this recording make it ideal for anyone relatively new to Ligeti, but the inclusion of premiere recordings of "Clocks and Clouds" and "Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel" make it essential for the Ligeti aficionado too.The cello concerto and "Clocks and Clouds" are classic Ligeti from the 1960s and 70s. The concerto has all the spooky and spiky restlessness that is associated with his work in this period. "Clocks and Clouds", for female voices an orchestra, illustrates the development of some of the key features of those earlier styles, recalling more well-known works such as the Chamber concerto, Lux aeterna and Aventures/Nouvelles Aventures, but with a more sophisticated harmonic gloss. The expert melding between precise metric passages (the "clocks") and diffuse liquidity ("clouds") is stunning, and it is difficult to understand why this concise and craftful piece has not been recorded before.The real high points of this disc though are the Violin concerto and "Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel". The violin concerto is a whole world away from its cello sister of a quarter of a century earlier. The early emergence of a recognisable melodic theme/motif is almost shocking at first, although its unconventional (almost outrageous at times) treatment acts as an perverse reassurance that we have not left the creative avant garde. Frank Peter Zimmermann is expert at lulling us into thinking that this is not Ligeti any more (this sentimentality cannot be Ligeti, surely!) before handing the theme over to the somewhat scary sounding ocarina chorus, and then taking it back again in a much less conventional form. The violin concerto is a masterpiece of variation and contradiction, which has a remarkable unity of diversity."Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel" ("With pipes, drums and fiddles") is totally different again. This is yet another new side of Ligeti. There are striking similarities with Janácek's "Nursery Rhymes"("Rikadla"). The use of folk idiom, humour and children's rhymes, and Ligeti's clever use of the natural music of speech (even when it is nonsense language) has the same enchanting effect. The simple (mostly percussion) accompaniment to Katalin Károlyi's mezzo-soprano makes this is an intimate piece, and I had only ever heard it in concert before, but it works surprisingly well in this expert recording.Ligeti's music is not normally well suited to home listening, but I guarantee that this disc will enthrall, uplift and inspire. You will want to play it again straight away. I did! This has got to be the best CD of 2003 - really!Andrew
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More serious fun from Ligeti

Jeff Abell | Chicago, IL USA | 03/17/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Serious composers probably take umbrage at the notion that their works sound "whacky," but that's the best adjective I can think of for Ligeti's exuberant compositions. This series (and its earlier incarnation on Sony) has brought us some really out-there stuff from one of the most individual composers of the 20th century. This latest release has the beautiful but quirky Violin Concerto, a kind of cuckoo-land successor to the Bartok 2nd concerto. There's also a piece for voices and orchestra from the '60s that's more in the serious vein. Not so the cycle for voice and percussion at the end of the CD, where the singer screams, yelps, and makes all manner of crazy sounds, all of it to more dramatically convey the text. Compared to many Europeans of his generations, Ligeti has always had a sense of humor (dark at times, but never the less). This latest release is a delight, and the performances are exquisite."

Deep contrasts and consistencies among four masterful pieces

Christopher Culver | 11/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the third disc in Teldec's "Ligeti Project", which continues the collection started by Sony's "Gyorgy Ligeti Edition" of the composer's works in performances supervised by the composer himself. It contains four works, including two world premiers, and represents works from the 1960's and the 1990's. As with most of the material in the "Ligeti Project" series, the orchestras are the Asko and Schoenberg Ensembles conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw.



The "Cello Concerto" was premiered in Berlin with Siegfriend Palm on cello in 1967, and Palm, one of the most famous interpreters of the avant garde cello over the last forty years, returns on this performance. In spite of its name, however, the work is not a traditional concerto, for the soloist does not dominate to the expected degree and only his visual presence marks his role. The piece begins with a long-held E, marked "pppppppp", the softest dynamic in Ligeti's entire oeuvre, which continues for a minute and a half before it meets F. This gradual evolution continues for the five-plus minutes of the first movement, opening up the harmonic cluster in both directions like an elegant vista. The second movement is in a way Ligeti's embrace of pre-serialist norms, for he uses open octaves and tritones, but its series of gestural mannerisms and wild gesticulations keeps it firmly in the modern tradition. This is not one of his most famous works of the 60's, but still deserving of attention.



"Clocks and Clouds", inspired by a lecture by Karl Popper on the distinction between mechanical regularity and fuzzy nebulosity, is a piece for 12 female voices and orchestra written in 1973 but never before recorded. It uses a remarkable selection of instruments containing seventeen woodwinds, but only two trumpets and no other brass, no violins among the strings, and glockenspiel, vibraphone, celestra, and two harps in important roles. The sung text is merely phonetic symols meant to blend with the instrumental sonorities. This is an ethereal, lush, and dreamlike piece that is among Ligeti's most easily listenable, and stylistically it shows inspiration from the school of minimalism which Ligeti became acquainted with during a term teaching in San Francisco.



The "Violin Concerto" (1989-1992) was written between 1989 and 1993 by comission of the violinist Saschko Gawriloff. Here the soloist is Frank-Peter Zimmermann. The work is a carnival of microtones. The orchestra consists of ten wind players, percussion, and eleven solo strings, and tuning varies wildly. Brass players often play natural harmonics that clash with equal temperment, two string players retune their instruments to follow the seemingly out-of-tune sounds of the double-bass, and several players turn to imprecise ocarinas and slide whistles. Like many works of the late Ligeti, this is in a postmodern vein, where the composer not only showcases his own new ideas but quotes his own past works ("Musica Ricercata") and borrows from Balkan folk music concepts. I concur with those who would call this music "wacky", it's certainly exhuberant and hops from style to style in a very fun way.



"Sippal, Dobbal, Nadihegeduvel" is a circle of seven songs based on poems by Sandor Weores, among the greatest of 20th century Hungarian poets whose works Ligeti and fellow Hungarian composer Peter Eotvos have extensively set. The work uses only mezzo-soprano and percussion, and was written for the Amadinda Percussion Group who also perform it here. It is in some ways a return to the faux folk music Ligeti wrote in communist Hungary, using only convential tunings but it nevertheless has a very exotic and non-traditional sound through its uses of metallophone percussion. I enjoy these songs because I am a great fan of Weores' poetry, but they are quite different than most of Ligeti's adult works and may meet many listeners with bafflement. What one must understand before hearing these seven pieces is that Ligeti has a sense of humour just like all people and is not some deadly serious ivory tower academic composer like, say, Boulez.



While perhaps not the best introduction to Ligeti (try "Gyorgy Ligeti Edition 3: Piano Works" or "The Ligeti Project IV") This is one of the strongest discs in his collected works and passionately recommended."