Requiem

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Teldec's invaluable Ligeti series continues with fascinating works, and this disc, featuring the 2002 revision of the Hamburg Concerto for Horn and Chamber Orchestra with four obligato natural horns, is no different. Its seven short movements explore different facets of Ligeti's unique sound-world. Harmonically adventurous, it's an accessible work, witty, dramatic, full of startling sonorities. Brilliant playing here by all, especially virtuoso horn soloist Marie Luise Neunecker. The disc's earliest piece is the Requiem (Ligeti set only four movements of the traditional Requiem). Completed in 1965, it's best-known for the use of part of the Kyrie in the film, 2001, A Space Odyssey. The Requiem centers on the large chorus, whose thickly written Kyrie fugue and over-the-top wild Dies Irae place enormous demands on the singers that are brilliantly met here. In between the larger works come the 1972 Double Concerto for Flute and Oboe, and Ramifications, a quarter-tone piece for 12 strings from 1969. For all their advanced tonal and rhythmic gestures, they make for fascinating listening, like everything else on this disc. --Dan Davis

The Ligeti Project IV: Hamburg Concerto (Horn Concerto) / Double Concerto / Ramifications / Requiem, Music, Gyorgy Ligeti, Reinbert de Leeuw, Jonathon Nott, Marie-Luise Neunecker, Heinz Holliger, Jacques Zoon, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, ASKO Ensemble / Schönberg Ensemble, Choral, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Concerto, Concerto for Two Solo Instruments, Orchestral, Orchestral & Symphonic, Requiem/Requiem Section, String Chamber Music

The Ligeti Project IV: Hamburg Concerto (Horn Concerto) / Double Concerto / Ramifications / Requiem
Average customer rating:

Best performances for every piece.

Painful to Hear

A superb meeting of Ligeti's recent and classic works

More good music in Teldec's Ligeti Project

a new concerto plus three new recordings

The Ligeti Project IV: Hamburg Concerto (Horn Concerto) / Double Concerto / Ramifications / Requiem
Gyorgy Ligeti , Reinbert de Leeuw , Jonathon Nott , Marie-Luise Neunecker , Heinz Holliger , Jacques Zoon , Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra , and ASKO Ensemble / Schönberg Ensemble
Manufacturer: Teldec
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Ligeti, György | ( L ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
Concertinos | Concertos | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Concertos | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
Requiems | Forms & Genres | Early Music | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra | ( B ) | Featured Performers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Strings | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Requiems | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

The Ligeti Project II: Lontano / Atmosphères / Apparitions / San Francisco Polyphony / Concert Românesc - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Jonathan Nott

The Ligeti Project III: Cello Concerto / Clocks & Clouds / Violin Concerto / Síppal, Dobbal, Nádihegedüvel

The Ligeti Project I: Melodien / Chamber Concerto / Piano Concerto / Mysteries of the Macabre - Schönberg Ensemble / ASKO Ensemble / Reinbert de Leeuw

The Ligeti Project, Vol. 5

György Ligeti Edition 2: A Cappella Choral Works - London Sinfonietta Voices

ASIN: B00008UVCE
Release Date: 2003-05-20

Tracks:

I. Paraludium
II. Singale, Tanz, Choral
III. Aria, Aksak, Hoketus
IV. Solo, Intermezzo, Mixtur, Kanon
V. Spectra
VI. Capricco
VII. Hymnus
I. Calmo, Con Tenerezza - Heniz Holliger
II. Allegro Corrente - Heniz Holliger
Ramifications For 12 Solo Strings - Heniz Holliger
I. Introitus. Sostenuto - Jonathan Nott
II. Kyrie. Molto Espressivo - Jonathan Nott
III. De Die Judicii Sequentia. Subito: Agitato Molto - Jonathan Nott
IV. Lacrimosa. Molto Lento - Jonathan Nott

Amazon.com

Teldec's invaluable Ligeti series continues with fascinating works, and this disc, featuring the 2002 revision of the Hamburg Concerto for Horn and Chamber Orchestra with four obligato natural horns, is no different. Its seven short movements explore different facets of Ligeti's unique sound-world. Harmonically adventurous, it's an accessible work, witty, dramatic, full of startling sonorities. Brilliant playing here by all, especially virtuoso horn soloist Marie Luise Neunecker. The disc's earliest piece is the Requiem (Ligeti set only four movements of the traditional Requiem). Completed in 1965, it's best-known for the use of part of the Kyrie in the film, 2001, A Space Odyssey. The Requiem centers on the large chorus, whose thickly written Kyrie fugue and over-the-top wild Dies Irae place enormous demands on the singers that are brilliantly met here. In between the larger works come the 1972 Double Concerto for Flute and Oboe, and Ramifications, a quarter-tone piece for 12 strings from 1969. For all their advanced tonal and rhythmic gestures, they make for fascinating listening, like everything else on this disc. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

Best performances for every piece........2006-06-08

Ligeti Edition in Teldec is offering to us a reference in every piece performed, like the case of this CD, The Ligeti Project IV.

The main work in this CD is the Requiem (1963-65), a piece I knew in Gielen's hands on Wergo, and from which I knew another performance with the Bayerischen Rundfunks we can hear in Kubrick's 2001, even it's not available nowadays. This new one is what we was waiting for, a wonderful performance conducted by a talent conductor joining a marvellous orchestra and a superb choir. Of course, I don't think this is last word on Ligeti's Requiem, but I really think this version is a reference for a long time. From the orchestral point of view, the Berliner Philharmoniker playing is breathtaking, as the superb orchestra they are. They manage all the the complex sound textures Ligeti creates in his complex score. Brasses are really a new dimension in this recording, something really outstanding I didn't hear before. Woodwinds and strings are clearly better than Wergo performance too, but brasses' playing... that's too much. The choir singing in this version is something I was discussing a lot with other people, because I know some other music-lovers who think this performance is not too much emphatic on the sense of a requiem; some of them even prefer Wergo's style on the choir, or the one heard in 2001, which they think is `darker' and much more dramatic. This one by the London Voices is quite crystal clear, you can hear all the lines, the micro-polyphony so marvellous described in this piece, like Ligeti did in some other works before, like Lontano. Having a choir like this guarantee this level of excellence, as they are really specialist on this repertoire. Despite the critics, they are really fantastic, no so dramatic like others, but quite perfect from the technical point of view. Soloists are really very, very good too, and they give them best in a marvellous performance of a crucial work in choral musical literature in the XXth Century.

Double Concerto (1972) is another piece I really love. I knew Wergo's performance, that is quite good and Abbado's one for DG, which was the one I preferred before having this one, that's the performance I find much more modern in style and much more perfect form a technical point of view, trying to explain all the complex systems under the score surface. Soloists are wonderful and the ensemble playing is amazing, like de Leeuw conducting, continuing the high excellence they are showing in every CD on this series. With no doubt, the best performance available for this very good piece, one of the most `easy' to listen in this CD.

Ramification (1968-69) is a little more difficult to listen, as it's really an explorative work for 12 strings, in micro-tone style, a really complex work from the technical point of view and from its structure design. Talking about the performances available, I knew Wergo's one, which I didn't like, and Boulez's one conducting the EIC, a remarkable version. I prefer this new one much more than any other, it's the more clear and the one that works much more in details with the limits of the tonality described on the score, that micro-tones that are not really easy to play if the ensemble is not specialist in this repertoire. Wonderful work too and another reference for the piece.

Hamburg Concerto (1998) represents Ligeti's final period, a time in which he seems to be deeply interested on rhythm and quite a turning back to the style he developed in his Hungarian days. Influenced strongly by the discovering of Nancarrow's studies for piano, the colour is again a central motive in these works, as the melodies, transformed but present in the structures. Like the Violin Concert or the Piano Concert, are pieces I don't like so much like those works from the late `50s, the `60s or the `70s too. Recently I read some words by Helmut Lachenmann about the last works by György Ligeti, in which he was very critic with them; I have to say I agree Lachenmann, and I don't like the last works by a composer I think is between the best in the last century.

Great and clear recordings for every work, perfect to notice every sound and the work's structures, so important in this contemporary music. Very good booklet and nice edition.

A must have for contemporary music lovers.

Painful to Hear.......2005-12-31

I have read the other reviews and really am trying hard to understand how someone could consider this music - unless you like listening to the sound track of a horror movie. This reminds me of an artist nailing a soup can to the wall and calling it a "piece to describe the our human inner struggle." Great. I think nailing an old pair of underwear would have been more apt of such a description, but to each his own. I wrote my own review of this piece and the best constructive criticism I could come up with is that there is no binding melody. There is a theme, for sure, but it is not one that I would liken to music that these players are obviously capable of. The sound (I am holding back from calling it music) is powerful and driving. It is too bad the notes do not match or produce any sense of coherent movement in this reviewers ears (other than to turn off the stereo).

A superb meeting of Ligeti's recent and classic works.......2004-01-08

The fourth disc of Warner Classics' fresh and exciting Ligeti Project contains the composer's recent "Hamburg Concerto" as well as two other works performed by the Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble. If you're new to Ligeti, this is worth getting because it contains his "Requiem", one of his most famous and also most accessible works, in a new performance by the Berliner Philharmonik.

In the "Hamburg Concerto" (1998) Ligeti presents a work which seems superficially simple and common, but which teems with inventiveness underneath. Primarily for horns, it also contains an lovely harp interruption, and the drumming seems inspired by the African music which the composer explored in the 90's. Though he is quite old now and has a 60-year career behind him, Ligeti continues to write interesting music and remains as strong as ever.

The "Double Concerto" (1972) is an exploration of the differences between flute and oboe. It begans as a quite soothing piece, but in its first movement grows to mournfulness through solitary sustained high notes. The second movement is more lively with a great deal of orchestral involvement. "Ramifications" (1968-69) is a minor work in which half of its twelve solo strings are tunes a quarter-tone lower than the other half. Ligeti then explores the surreal interaction among the strings. The performance here seems solid, but I find its recording too "dark", and prefer the Ensemble Intercontemporain/Pierre Boulez performance, recently reissued by Deutsche Grammaphon, which is considerably clearer.

For all that comes before it, "Requiem" (1963-65) is clearly the highest point of the disc. The complexity and power of the piece makes it a real chef d'oeuvre. Beginning with a slow "Introitus", the work moves into a stunning "Kyrie", in which the threatening murmurs of over 100 singers create a complex web of sound occasionally broken by ingenious orchestral interruptions. The following "De die judicii" is dedicated mainly to the idiosyncratic vocal experimentations of solo soprano and mezzo-soprano. The piece ends with ever diminished strength, as if symbolising the one being laid to rest. Though this piece acheived popularity through its use in the final portion of Kubrick's "2001", I find this live version from 2002 to be much better than the first performance of the 60's.

My only complaints about the CD concern the liner notes. The English translation of Ligeti's (German language) comments is not so faithful to the original. There are also a couple of ads in the booklet.

This is a must-have disc for fans of Ligeti, and an ideal starting-place for The Ligeti Project. The glorious new "Requiem" brings me back frequently.

More good music in Teldec's Ligeti Project.......2003-11-21

Teldec's Ligeti Project is rapidly coming to a close--there is one more disc to follow, but it is mainly of minor works--and this recording is inevitably a little arbitrary in its selection. It contains a recent work (1999's Hamburg Concerto for horn, four natural horns and chamber orchestra), two earlier, comparatively minor works (the Double Concerto and Ramifications) and a bona fide 20th century classic (the Requiem).

The Hamburg Concerto continues Ligeti's recent interest in clashing tuning systems within a basically tonal, post-Bartokian musical language. It's ostensibly in seven movements, but as many of these movements are clearly multipartite (for example 'Solo, Intermezzo, Mixtur, Kanon') it is probably fairer to regard it as a fourteen-minute, fourteen-movement collection of miniatures. It's a highly entertaining work, given a tremendous performance here, though I wish Ligeti had developed some of the ideas within it to a greater extent. (For those who heard the original version of this work, a new finale has been appended onto the end of it, and this rounds the work off much more effectively than the original finale did.)

The Double Concerto, for flute, oboe and orchestra, is something of a minor work within Ligeti's ouevre. It explores clashing microtones within the various instrumental parts, in a two movement form where the first movement focuses around slow drift and the second contains much more surface activity. The solo instruments are often submerged within the orchestral writing, and do not play a soloistic role as in the Hamburg Concerto. Despite the outstanding performance here--Heinz Holliger's oboe playing is as stunning as ever--this strikes me as more of a retread of 1960s Ligeti works than a major work in its own right.

Ramifications is a short work for 12 solo strings in two groups, one tuned a quarter-tone above each other. Ligeti's intention in this piece was that the pitches of the two groups would tend to shift towards each other in performance, creating a haze of shimmering harmonies.

The disc ends with the Requiem, one of Ligeti's greatest works. Only setting four parts of the Requiem Mass--Introitus, Kyrie, Dies Irae and Lacrimosa--Ligeti explicitly does without the later, consolatory aspects of the liturgy. The Introitus begins mysteriously, unison bass voices intoning the words against bass instruments, with a gradual crescendo and rise in pitch throughout the movement. The Kyrie is a polyphonic tour de force, multiple canons creating powerful bands of sound that surround the listener with an aural haze, before leading into the apocalyptically violent Dies Irae. The work closes with a slow setting of the Lacrimosa, low and high voices surrounding delicate orchestral touches. This is a very fine recording, with outstanding sound. Even if I find the original Wergo recording by Michael Gielen marginally superior--at least if you can get it on LP: the disappointing CD remastering seriously affects the sound quality--nobody will be disappointed by Nott's version here.

The music here is not as consistently great as in some of the previous issues in this series--only the Requiem is absolutely essential Ligeti--but the performances are good throughout. Recommended without question to Ligeti fans, but those new to the composer would be better off first trying the Sony recording of the Etudes or Volume III in this edition.

a new concerto plus three new recordings.......2003-06-12

The pace of Teldec's Ligeti Project series is speeding up -- LP1 was released in 2001, LP2 in 2002, and now LP3 and LP4 in 2003. This is another excellent production, with recordings from September through November of 2002. The disc opens with the premiere recording of the "Hamburg Concerto," just composed in 1998-9. Featured is the Horn of Marie Luise Neunecker, the dedicatee. The performance is marvelous, but I do not find the composition to be as compelling as other "late Ligeti" pieces such as the Piano and Violin Concertos.

The new recording of the "Double Concerto" (composed in 1972) features Heinz Holliger on oboe, generally acknowledged to be the most accomplished player of his instrument today, along with Jacques Zoon on flute. "Ramifications" was presented in two versions on a Wergo disc, for 12 solo strings, and with orchestra -- LP4 presents only the 12 strings version. Finally, my personal favorite for this recording, a new version of "Requiem" (composed in 1963-5), part of which was used for the soundtrack of Kubrick's "2001." The complete recording was previously available on Wergo, but I had not heard it before -- it resembles "Lux Aeterna," but includes wisps of orchestra in addition to the solo and choral voices. Jonathan Nott conducts the Berlin Philharmonic here, superb again as on the LP2 disc, which presents all orchestral works. LP4 is not the place to start if you're investigating Ligeti, I'd say (I recommend LP2 or perhaps LP1), but it is a fine album, and indispensable for Ligeti collectors.

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