György Ligeti

A unique collector's edition is a "climbing on the history of music" for 20 centuries from ancient times (Greece) to the present day. "History of Music", the 20-disc collection. Starting with the ancient music, music of the Middle Ages continued, Renaissance and Baroque music and ending the era of romanticism and modernity.

Musica Sacra sing with a dreamy otherworldly quality exqusite works by all these composers...including an incredible interpretation of Messiaen's towering "O Sacrum Convivium"...but wonderfully matched by the lovely new works by Meredith Monk, Robert Moran, Kim Sherman, and the heartbreaking requiem by Ricky Ian Gordon, "Water Music/A Two Part Requiem." Even Ligeti is represented with his groundbreaking "Lux Aeterna."

Kurt Weill - Ensemble Modern - Berlin im Licht
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 244 MB | Full Artwork: 14 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Largo Records # LARGO 5114 | Country/Year: Germany 1990
Genre: Classical | Style: Vocal, Lieder, Early 20th Century

"The founding of the Ensemble Modern (EM) in 1980 as an initiative of students of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie pursued the goal of supporting New Music and giving it appropriate performances. Since 1985 the EM, which is democratically organised, has been resident in Frankfurt am Main. It is among the world’s leading ensembles for Contemporary Music…"

Kurt Weill - Ensemble Modern - Berlin im Licht
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 244 MB | Full Artwork: 14 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Largo Records # LARGO 5114 | Country/Year: Germany 1990
Genre: Classical | Style: Vocal, Lieder, Early 20th Century

"The founding of the Ensemble Modern (EM) in 1980 as an initiative of students of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie pursued the goal of supporting New Music and giving it appropriate performances. Since 1985 the EM, which is democratically organised, has been resident in Frankfurt am Main. It is among the world’s leading ensembles for Contemporary Music…"

Exploring 20th-century repertoire – both acknowledged masterpieces and new discoveries – this 14-CD anthology reflects the diverse aesthetic strands of Pierre Boulez’s programming over the course of his ground-breaking and influential career. These Erato recordings, made between 1966 and 1992, feature composers otherwise absent from Boulez’s discography – Xenakis, Donatoni, Grisey, Dufourt, Ferneyhough, Harvey and Höller – and the first CD release of the interpretation of Stravinsky’s incantatory Les Soucoupes in the version for female voices and four horns.

Hungarian-born Sándor Veress (1907-1992) is a sadly neglected figure in modern music. Despite his pupilage under Bela Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, and even his succession over the latter as professor of composition at the Budapest School of Music in 1943, Veress has never attained the same international recognition as his two most successful compatriots. One might blame his preference for solitude or his idiomatic methodology for keeping him in obscurity. Yet as one who made the most of his outlier status and ideological exile, he seems never to have been one to wallow in self-pity. Exposed to much of the folk music that also captivated his mentors, Veress nurtured that same spirit when sociopolitical upheaval exacerbated his emigration to Switzlerland in 1949. Whereas Kodály in particular saw cultural preservation as central to the musical act, Veress saw it as an incision to be teased open and unraveled.

A countryman of Bela Bartók and a sometime teacher to both György Ligeti and György Kurtág, Sándor Veress emigrated to Switzerland from what was then part of Hungary in 1949. Settling in Bern, he collected various prizes and teaching posts while working in relative obscurity on who knows how many pieces–most of which have been unavailable. This collection is made up of a pithy trio of compositions dated 1938 (Six Csárdás), 1951 (Hommage à Paul Klee), and 1952 (Concerto for Piano, Strings, and Percussion), and they show what a deftly melodic force Veress was. He's thrilled by blustery string wafts, especially in the concerto, where the percussion adds drama and immediacy. But he also favors sweetly chipper string formations, which surprise the ear during the homage to Klee, especially given the dissonances fostered early on by the twin pianos. The closing piano miniatures of Six Csárdás are counterpoint-rich gems, played with sharp precision by András Schiff.