Ligeti - 6 Bagatelles, Kammerkonzert, 10 Pieces for Wind Quintet
Despatch Information
This despatch estimate is based on information from both our own stock and the UK supplier's stock.
If ordering multiple items, we will aim to send everything together so the longest despatch estimate will apply to the complete order.
If you would rather receive certain items more quickly, please place them on a separate order.
If any unexpected delays occur, we will keep you informed of progress via email and not allow other items on the order to be held up.
If you would prefer to receive everything together regardless of any delay, please let us know via email.
Pre-orders will be despatched as close as possible to the release date.
Label: Actes Sud
Cat No: ASM26
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Chamber
Release Date: 18th November 2016
Contents
Artists
Les SieclesConductor
Francois-Xavier RothWorks
Bagatelles (6) for wind quintetChamber Concerto
Pieces (10) for wind quintet
Artists
Les SieclesConductor
Francois-Xavier RothAbout
Sound/Video
Paused
-
1Ligeti: Six Bagatelles - Allegro Con Spirito
-
2Ligeti: Six Bagatelles - Rubato. Lamentoso
-
3Ligeti: Six Bagatelles - Allegro Grazioso
-
4Ligeti: Six Bagatelles - Presto Ruvido
-
5Ligeti: Six Bagatelles - Adagio. Mesto (In Memoriam Bela Bartok)
-
6Ligeti: Six Bagatelles - Molto Vivace. Capriccioso
-
7Ligeti: Kammerkonzert - Corrente (Fliessend)
-
8Ligeti: Kammerkonzert - Calmo Sostenuto
-
9Ligeti: Kammerkonzert - Movimento Preciso E Meccanico
-
10Ligeti: Kammerkonzert - Presto
-
11Ligeti: Dix Pieces Pour Quintette a Vent - Molto Sostenuto E Calmo
-
12Ligeti: Dix Pieces Pour Quintette a Vent - Prestissimo Minaccioso E Burlesco
-
13Ligeti: Dix Pieces Pour Quintette a Vent - .Lento
-
14Ligeti: Dix Pieces Pour Quintette a Vent - Prestissimo Leggiero E Virtuoso
-
15Ligeti: Dix Pieces Pour Quintette a Vent - Presto Staccatissimo E Leggiero
-
16Ligeti: Dix Pieces Pour Quintette a Vent - Lo Stesso. Presto Staccatissimo E Leggiero
-
17Ligeti: Dix Pieces Pour Quintette a Vent - Vivo, Energico
-
18Ligeti: Dix Pieces Pour Quintette a Vent - Allegro Con Delicatezza
-
19Ligeti: Dix Pieces Pour Quintette a Vent - Sostenuto, Stridente
-
20Ligeti: Dix Pieces Pour Quintette a Vent - Presto Bizzaro
Europadisc Review
Proof of this comes with a new disc from François-Xavier Roth and the musicians of Les Siècles. More usually heard playing period instruments in performances of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century music, here they exchange their older instruments for modern ones, while retaining all their customary sensibility to timbral range and variety. The results are enormously captivating, helped by a sympathetically warm but detailed sound-picture. The outer works are two sets of miniatures for wind quintet, opening with the Six Bagatelles of 1953. Culled from Ligeti’s eleven-movement piano work Musica ricercata, these are short movements with gradually expanding numbers of pitches (the first Bagatelle, for example, uses just the notes C, E flat, E natural and G). Stylistically there are nods to Stravinsky and Bartók (to whose memory the fifth Bagatelle is dedicated), but they have a very modern edginess to them which resulted in their banning by the 1950s Hungarian regime. Yet they have huge character, often mischievous, and since their eventual premiere in the 1960s they have become among the composer’s most popular and frequently performed works. The performances on this disc are lively, pert and probing, nothing of Ligeti’s challenging trickiness eluding the players.
The other miniatures are the 1968 10 Pieces for wind quintet, tougher musically, and featuring that extraordinary combination (sometimes side-by-side, at others simultaneous) of prolific detail and slow gradation: what Ligeti termed ‘clear and cloudy’ music. Out-of-sync ostinati and mechanistic figuration rub shoulders with sustained textures (sometimes harsh, at others gentle), so that these pieces – none of them more than two-and-a-half minutes long – punch well above their weight.
And the same can also be said of the central work on the disc, the larger-scale Chamber Concerto of 1970. With single strings, brass and keyboards added to the mix, and an almost symphonic four-movement layout, this is both substantial and vividly characterful music, and it receives a gripping performance here, less analytic and confrontational than Boulez’s famous DG account, bringing out more of the music’s ‘chamber’ character. The first movement, with its magical opening textures and references to Berg and Messiaen, is the most memorable, but throughout the work Roth and his musicians clearly relish the physicality of Ligeti’s writing just as much as the quicksilver mood changes. The mechanistic third movement emerges with particular forcefulness, while in the virtuosic closing Presto the players rise tremendously to the challenges.
This is a hugely attractive disc which should appeal to both seasoned listeners and newcomers to Ligeti’s music. The programme is a well-balanced one, and the presentation exemplary. Don’t be misled by the short playing time (some 44 minutes): there’s more music packed into this than on most discs almost twice the length.
Reviews
This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.
Error on this page? Let us know here
Need more information on this product? Click here