Peter Eotvos

For her fourth album on Naïve, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja joins forces with composer/conductor Peter Eötvös, and her program of modern violin concertos is marvelously cohesive and direct. The three works by Béla Bartók, Eötvös, and György Ligeti reveal connections in style and substance drawn from a common heritage, built on the rhythms and colors of Hungarian folk music and communicated through innovative orchestration that incorporates extended techniques.

After a string of fine Helmut Lachenmann releases on several labels specializing in contemporary classical music, notably Audivis Montaigne, Schwankungen Am Rand (Fluctuations at the Edge) marks his debut on ECM New Series, and the "notoriously difficult" composer celebrates the occasion by providing an admirably clear introductory essay to his works. The title track, subtitled "Music for Brass and Strings" (somewhat misleading, as percussion instruments, notably two pianos and four specially designed thunder sheets, play a prominent role), was completed in 1975, but has lost none of its power to surprise, both in terms of its sound material…

Isao Nakamura - Carter, Huber, Kagel, Pagh-Paan, Eötvös, Xenakis & Hosokawa: Works for Solo Percussion (2018) {NEOS Digital Download}
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Classical / Contemporary Classical / Percussion

On this CD, Isao Nakamura presents a selection of works for solo percussion which – despite some very demanding technical passages – do not focus primarily on technical brilliance but on clear, focused artistic ideas, as well as, in some cases, extra-musical concepts. The main focus here is on drums. As the only instruments tuned to a specific pitch, in this CD the timpani features in two movements of Elliott Carter's "Eight Pieces for Four Timpani" and in Peter Eötvös's "Thunder".

The works on this album were written between 1935 and 2019 by four Hungarian composers: Béla Bartók, who was the teacher of Sándor Veress, who taught György Ligeti, who in turn was an early but formative influence on Péter Eötvös. Their compositions all share the idea of a dialogue between cultured and popular elements, between a Western music tradition and folk music, particularly of Eastern Europe. This idea was formulated in the early 20th century by Bartók himself, who considered the use of folk elements in a piece of art music not only as a tool to revitalize the Classical tradition but also as a mean to unite different cultures.