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| | Location: Home » Music Instruments » Ligeti, Gyoergy » Gyoergy Ligeti Edition 4: Vocal Works (Madrigals, Mysteries, Aventures, Songs) - The King's Singers / Philharmonia Orchestra / Esa-Pekka Salonen | August 29, 2008 |
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| Gyoergy Ligeti Edition 4: Vocal Works (Madrigals, Mysteries, Aventures, Songs) - The King's Singers / Philharmonia Orchestra / Esa-Pekka Salonen | 
 enlarge | Artists: Gyorgy Ligeti, Esa-pekka Salonen, Rosemary Hardy, Christiane Oelze, The King's Singers, Philharmonia Orchestra, Philip Lawson, Bruce Russell, Sibylle Ehlert, Phyllis Bryn-julson, Omar Ebrahim, Irina Kataeva, David Hurley, Pierre-laurent Aimard, Stephen Connolly, Malena Ernman, Eva Wedin, Robert Chilcott
Label: Sony
Category: Music
List Price: $11.98
Buy New: $7.17
You Save: $4.81 (40%)
Buy New/Used from $6.46
Avg. Customer Rating:  (8 reviews)
Sales Rank: 130043
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 62311
UPC: 074646231128
EAN: 0074646231128
ASIN: B0000029P3
Release Date: January 21, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Nonsense Madrigals: I Two Dreams And Little Bat | | • | Nonsense Madrigals: II Cuckoo In The Pear-Tree | | • | Nonsense Madrigals: III The Alphabet | | • | Nonsense Madrigals: IV Flying Robert | | • | Nonsense Madrigals: V The Lobster Quadrille | | • | Nonsense Madrigals: VI A Long, Sad Tale | | • | Le Grand Macabre: Mysteries Of The Macabre | | • | Aventures | | • | Nouvelles Aventures: Sostenuto | | • | Nouvelles Aventures: Agitato molto | | • | Der Sommer | | • | Harom Weores-dal: I Tancol a Hold feher ingben | | • | Harom Weores-dal: II Gyumolcs-furt | | • | Harom Weores-dal: III Kalmar jott nagy madarakkal | | • | Ot Arany-dal: I Csalfa sugar | | • | Ot Arany-dal: II A legszebb virag | | • | Ot Arany-dal: III A csendes dalokbol | | • | Ot Arany-dal: IV A bujdoso | | • | Ot Arany-dal: V Az ordog elvitte a financot | | • | Negy lakodalmi tanc: I A menyasszony szep virag | | • | Negy lakodalmi tanc: II A kapuban a szeker | | • | Negy lakodalmi tanc: III Hopp ide tisztan | | • | Negy lakodalmi tanc: IV Mikor kedves Laci batyam |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Rejoice! The world-premiere recordings of six Ligeti works are cause for celebration. Three of the pieces are recent (1988-93), and three were written during Ligeti's youth in Hungary. In the liner notes, Ligeti movingly describes the artistic climate under the Communist regime. One of the highlights, the third of six Nonsense Madrigals is a beautiful setting of the English alphabet. The other premieres are Mysteries of the Macabre sung by the brilliant Sibylle Ehlert, and a Hoelderlin poem arranged for soprano and piano. The earlier premieres are settings of Hungarian poets, for one or three voices and piano. This is a stunning set, encompassing Ligeti's adventurous, polyphonic side and ample heartfelt poignance as well. --Robert Regile
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 An important modern composer for voice. August 25, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
'Gyorgy Ligeti Edition 4' composed by Gyorgy Ligeti and performed under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen is at least as entertaining as the second title in this series, even if it does not include any of Ligeti's works which were used on the sound track of '2001'. Like his 'a capella' works, this disk shows a great range of styles, going from central European folk dances to some phrases which sound as if they are being done by the Limelighters!. To the voices, the instruments add a lot of pops, whistles, and hoots which are beyond the range of the human voice, but the human and the mechanical sounds meld well to produce a really enjoyable sample of modern music.
Another Entry into the Ligeti Library October 21, 2005
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
The solo voice and choral works of Gyoergy Ligeti are rarely heard, with the exception of performances in some of the better university and college choral programs. This richly entertaining and fascinating recital once again survey's Ligeti's influence on contemporary music by scanning his career from early to current works, this time for the human voice.
The 'Nonsense Madrigals' as performed by the King's Singers are wildly funny and endearing. Here are compositional techniques that reflect the long career in instrumental composition that has influenced them. Esa-Pekka Salonen, long a devotee of Ligeti's music, conducts the Philharmonia when ensemble support is indicated ('Mysteries of the Macabre' excerpts form his opera "Le Grand Macabre" as perfectly intoned by Sibylle Ehlert; the various forms of 'Aventures & Nouvelles aventures' with soloists Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Omar Ebrahim and Rose Taylor). The remainder of the works are for voice and piano and are honored by the performances by the likes of pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Irina Kataeva and vocalists Christiane Oelze, Rosemary Hardy, Malena Ernman and Eva Wedin.
The music recorded here may be new to many but it is fine, accessible Ligeti for the novice and true treats for the followers. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, October 05
 Contains some good mature writing with some frankly dull early works September 29, 2005
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
The fourth volume of Sony's "Gyorgy Ligeti Edition" series of the contemporary Hungarian composer's collected works is dedicated to vocal works, especially those that use instrumentation. Like with all installments in Sony's series, performances are by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Salonen with Aimard and Kataeva on pianos. The vocal performances here are by the King's Singers.
The earliest pieces on the disc were written before Ligeti fled to the West following the Hungarian uprising, and among these the "Harom Weores-dal" (Three Weores songs) were composed while Ligeti was still a student. Sandor Weores was one of the greatest Hungarian poets of the last century, and was especially skilled in writing poems that hid deep philosophical insights behind child-like verse. This makes his poems especially suitable to be set to music (Peter Eotvos has tackled some of his more complex poetry). Ligeti's settings are quite traditional, and for lovers of contemporary repertoire that can even mean dull; Aimard must have been bored by the simple piano writing when he's tackled the composer's later "Etudes". Still, the music does complement the imagery of Weores well. The following two works by "prehistoric Ligeti" were composed as a way out of the straitjacket of socialist realism. The first, "Negy lakodalmi tanc" (Four wedding dances) takes folklore as a refuge, and the second "Ot Arany-dal" (Five Arany songs) sets to music the poems of the pre-revolutionary and accepted poet Jozef Arany. These early works don't hold up well against the rest at all.
After Ligeti came to the West, his music changed greatly. "Aventures" and "Nouvelles Adventures" were composed in the mid-1960s and are very reminiscent of the theatrical project of the music avant-garde of that time. They use a soprano, contralto, and baritone backed by orchestra and articulating nonsense text (notated in the score with the International Phonetic Alphabet) seek to express all emotions without using words. I think the pieces have aged quite well, though I know that others disagree. I don't know if this performance was satisfactory to Ligeti for, although he allowed it to appear on this disc, another performance can be found on volume five of Teldec's "Ligeti Project".
"Mysteries of the Macabre" is a setting for chamber ensemble of the zany solo by the Chief of Secret Police (a coloratura soprano) from the composer's sole opera "The Grand Macabre". Even for those who dislike the opera--and it is a work that leaves no one ambivalent--this is an exciting work, perhaps the high point of the disc. The seven minutes of vocal acrobatics here have been called the most challenging piece ever composed for coloratura soprano, and yet Sibylle Ehlert carries it through gloriously. Note that an alternate setting using trumpet in place of soprano can be found on the first volume of Teldec's "Ligeti Project".
"Nonsense Madrigals" for voices a capella (1988-1993) is the most recent work here, a collection of six English-language pieces based on favourite meaningless writers, such as Lewis Caroll, William Brighty Rands, and Heinrich Hoffmann. The finest of these is surely Ligeti's setting of the English alphabet, a diatonic but non-tonal "labyrinth" of polyrhythms. It combines the best of the micropolyphony sound of his 60s works with his newer interest in non-Western metrics. In the course of putting these together, he also set Hoelderlin's "Der Sommer".
The liner notes are fine, containing remarks on the pieces by Ligeti as well as the sung text and many photos. All in all, this is a three-star installment. If you are interested in the work of Ligeti but haven't gotten anything from "Gyorgy Ligeti Edition" yet, try the third volume (piano works) or the first (string works). Save this one for later.
where's the dead weight? December 8, 2004
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
This is an amazing disc, one of the best in Sony's monumental Ligeti Edition series.
On Sony's Ligeti Edition 4, the _Nonsense Madrigals_ were premiered. These six pieces for six voices, composed in the late-80s/early-90s, are some of the composer's finest offerings. Writes Ligeti, "They are virtuosic works in which I have tried to create a non-tonal but diatonic harmony as well as rhythmic labyrinths." The songs set different pieces of strange poetry against each other in tightly meshed counterpoint, with humorous melodic lines and overwhelming musical imagination. Ligeti also colors the arrangement with nonsense phonetic sounds.
_Mysteries of the Macabre_ takes the three arias of the Chief of the Secret Police from Ligeti's wonderful opera (_Le Grand Macabre_) and rearranges them. This has been called the most difficult music ever written from coloratura soprano, but you wouldn't know it listening to Sibylle Ehlert. Amazing!
Contrary to another reviewer, I think the harsher, earlier avant-garde vocal works (_Aventures_ and _Nouvelles Aventures_) have aged very well. They are comprised of meaningless vocal sounds with chamber orchestra accompaniment. Their pure chromaticism was something Ligeti would later abandon, but even with the prevailing seriousness of the Darmstadt school, these pieces are quite witty and amusing and consistent with Ligeti's goal of composing idiomatically for instruments (including voice), given that the music is pretty much atonal.
This disc also features pieces for one or three voices and piano from Ligeti's early Hungarian days. Because of stifling artistic conditions under Communist rule, the pieces are consonant and accessible.
I assure you that there is no other avant-garde vocal music like Ligeti's. Very highly recommended!
Excellent in parts, but lumbered with much dead weight November 26, 2003
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Gyorgy Ligeti has not been greatly known for his music for solo voice--indeed it was not until 2000 that he completed his first mature song cycle--but this disc conveniently collects all his solo vocal music before then along with the Nonsense Madrigals for six voices, the Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures for three voices and some early socialist realism for three voices.The Nonsense Madrigals are without doubt the highlight of the disc. These wonderfully witty a capella works were written for the performers on the disc, the King's Singers, who reward Ligeti with a wonderful reading of all six songs. Five of the songs are based on nonsense poems, with the remaining item being a setting of the alphabet. These vary wildly in style from the complex counterpoint of the first through the floating Lux Aeterna-like harmonies of the alphabet setting, to the bizarre backbeat in the finale. Less worthwhile is Mysteries of the Macabre, a medley of the three coloratura arias from Ligeti's opera Le Grand Macabre, with reduced scoring arranged by the opera's first conductor, Elgar Howarth. While these are certainly entertaining, they don't add anything to the opera. Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures are works from the 1960s, and to be honest it shows. Their verbal shrieks, contortions and phonetic texts--along with the fragmentary accompaniment--are very much of their time. They aren't devoid of musical interest, or humour, but nothing can hide the fact that they, unlike almost all of Ligeti's other avant-garde works, haven't aged well. Der Sommer is a brief Hoelderlin setting for soprano and piano dating from 1989. Even though this song reuses the lamento motif prominent in the finale of the Horn Trio and the Sixth Etude, the general style and use of minimal material reminds me as much of Ligeti's countryman Gyorgy Kurtag as of Ligeti himself. The rest of the disc is taken up with songs written from before Ligeti escaped from Hungary. The Three Weores Songs are from 1946 and 1947, during Ligeti's first year at the Budapest Conservatoire, and I'm sure they must have made it very clear that Ligeti was an outstanding student. Couched in a language derived from Bartok and Stravinsky, but going further than either, they have a splendid rustic feel. Sadly, the Stalinist ousting of the short-lived post-war regime made it impossible for Ligeti to continue along this direction and still be performed. Hence the Five Arany songs are pallid in comparison, and even if the last of the folk-song transcriptions that end the disc is infuriatingly catchy, the cycle as a whole is very minor Ligeti. This disc can be recommended for the Nonsense Madrigals and (to a lesser extent Der Sommer and the Weores Songs). The rest of the music on it is more for completists only, despite the generally fine level of the performances.
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