Three Favorite Ligeti Orchestral Works

[DavidW]

But the Debussy poll got 22 votes!!!

Probably someone registered and voted ten times over!

[North Star]

Oh my god -- and "Atmospheres". I'm going to have a fit if that one wins. I mean, it's okay, but it gets so much attention!

Lesson no. 1 for aspiring composers: give your works cool names.

[EigenUser]

Lesson no. 1 for aspiring composers: give your works cool names.

Indeed. Names can make a surprising difference (as to whether this phenomenon is good is debatable). I read somewhere that John Adams originally called wrote this piece called "Wave-Maker" and it wasn't well-received. Then he renamed it. Now it is "Shaker Loops", which is one of his most well-known works. Imagine what would happen if Debussy called "La Mer" something like "The Planets". Would it be well-received even though the music remains the same? Probably not. Then again, many critics didn't think it sounded like the sea. One said something like "we expected the sea, but all we got was some agitated water in a saucer".

I think that "Clocks and Clouds" is a much cooler name than "Atmospheres", though. As mystic as the music itself.

[springrite]

Requiem
Atomspheres
Chamber Concerto

[North Star]

Indeed. Names can make a surprising difference (as to whether this phenomenon is good is debatable).

The phenomenon is certainly not good for art of any kind. But it is also something that can't be changed.

I read somewhere that John Adams originally called wrote this piece called "Wave-Maker" and it wasn't well-received. Then he renamed it. Now it is "Shaker Loops", which is one of his most well-known works. Imagine what would happen if Debussy called "La Mer" something like "The Planets". Would it be well-received even though the music remains the same? Probably not. Then again, many critics didn't think it sounded like the sea. One said something like "we expected the sea, but all we got was some agitated water in a saucer".

Better yet, what if Debussy had called it Eroica or Le sacre du printemps?! 

I think that "Clocks and Clouds" is a much cooler name than "Atmospheres", though. As mystic as the music itself.

Well, those are both cool names.

[petrarch]

Atmosphères, Lontano and the Chamber Concerto (though I don't think the latter counts as 'orchestral'--the subtitle for 13 instrumentalists makes it clearly an ensemble piece--but since it is my all-time Ligeti favorite I had to vote for it).

[EigenUser]

Atmosphères, Lontano and the Chamber Concerto (though I don't think the latter counts as 'orchestral'--the subtitle for 13 instrumentalists makes it clearly an ensemble piece--but since it is my all-time Ligeti favorite I had to vote for it).

Yes, I almost didn't put it in because of the title. However, it does call for a conductor and it is listed under the "orchestral works" scores on Schott (the publisher).

[petrarch]

Yes, I almost didn't put it in because of the title. However, it does call for a conductor and it is listed under the "orchestral works" scores on Schott (the publisher).

Seems to me that the title itself (Chamber Concerto) contradicts the classification of the publisher .

[ibanezmonster]

Lontano, Atmospheres, Violin Concerto

[EigenUser]

NOOOOO!!! "Atmospheres" is winning  .

For some reason I'm glad that no one picked the "Concert Romanesc", even though I like it.

It's sad that no one picked "Ramifications". I'm really starting to love that piece, even though I didn't at first.

[kishnevi]

That reminds me.....I haven't voted yet.

In truth,  I can't say I like anything by Ligeti for large scale forces except Con. Rom.   There's enough in them that I keep coming back to grapple with them, but not yet enough to crack what is for me a very tough nut.

[EigenUser]

That reminds me.....I haven't voted yet.

In truth,  I can't say I like anything by Ligeti for large scale forces except Con. Rom.   There's enough in them that I keep coming back to grapple with them, but not yet enough to crack what is for me a very tough nut.

Have you heard his "Clocks and Clouds"? For me that was the easiest to listen to while I was warming up to his music, and it remains my favorite. This is the kind of music to listen to while stargazing, pondering the meaning of life. Not that I do this, mind you . But, if I did, it would be while listening to "Clocks and Clouds". Works like the PC, on the other hand, can be a bit trickier because there is so much going on at once. Buying the score helped greatly.

Then there are works like the "Cello Concerto" and "Apparitions" -- the ones I still haven't figured out yet.

[Mirror Image]

I'm not surprised Atmospheres is winning. It's a great piece despite it's popularity.

[not edward]

That reminds me.....I haven't voted yet.

In truth,  I can't say I like anything by Ligeti for large scale forces except Con. Rom.   There's enough in them that I keep coming back to grapple with them, but not yet enough to crack what is for me a very tough nut.

Violin Concerto, perhaps? It's almost a conspectus of his late style and reuses some material from earlier chamber works.

[EigenUser]

It's good that you try to stretch your ears like this .. when it clicks and you hear it, you'll open a new door and never look back!

+1

Violin Concerto, perhaps? It's almost a conspectus of his late style and reuses some material from earlier chamber works.

Yes, that's a good one. Even my mom likes the Ligeti VC! I used to like it more, but I don't listen to it as much as his other works. The first movement is so beautiful, though. It shimmers like a dangerously thin plate of glass under a light. The recording on Clear or Cloudy is by far the best I've heard. In fact, I don't think I'd like the piece too much if that recording didn't exist. It is the only recording where the out of tune instruments actually seem to sound beautiful instead of just, well, out of tune. And in the 5th movement, that whip-crack should be terrifyingly loud and should seem to "ignite" the flurry of snap-pizzicato that follows in the cellos/bass. The Clear or Cloudy version does this the best.

I've said before that I'm not particularly picky about recordings. But when it is concerning music that I truly love and know well, I can be picky to the point of absurdity . It's gotten so bad that I actually made a playlist for the Bartok PCs where I actually mix movements/performers (sacrilege, I know).

[Mirror Image]

You should hear Patricia Kopatchinskaja in Ligeti's VC, Nate. The best performance I've heard of this masterwork.

[springrite]

Geez, I seem to have lost the VC... 

[bhodges]

Atmosphères, Lontano, Violin Concerto. I've heard Christian Tetzlaff live several times in the latter, doing a fabulous job in the cadenza, mimicking the sound of the ocarinas in the piece.

--Bruce

[EigenUser]

You should hear Patricia Kopatchinskaja in Ligeti's VC, Nate. The best performance I've heard of this masterwork.

I heard samples from a few movements. I didn't like it quite as much as the Clear or Cloudy with Gawriloff, but I was enjoying it. Then I heard the whip-crack in the fifth movement. LAME!!! I want that part to scare me half to death when I hear it, but I didn't even hear it at all in the Kopatchinskaja!

Of course, it is silly to disregard an entire recording for one little thing like that, and I'm not -- it was very good. That just happens to be my favorite part in the piece so I am naturally drawn to noticing it. In fact, here it is, as Ligeti wrote it :


And here is the Gawriloff (skip to 1:15 in the video):
http://www.youtube.com/v/QzhAzaQQGkM
Literally, it ignites the "tutta la forza" woodwind fourth and the flurry of Bartok-pizzicato that follows.

[Mirror Image]

I heard samples from a few movements. I didn't like it quite as much as the Clear or Cloudy with Gawriloff, but I was enjoying it. Then I heard the whip-crack in the fifth movement. LAME!!! I want that part to scare me half to death when I hear it, but I didn't even hear it at all in the Kopatchinskaja!

Of course, it is silly to disregard an entire recording for one little thing like that, and I'm not -- it was very good. That just happens to be my favorite part in the piece so I am naturally drawn to noticing it. In fact, here it is, as Ligeti wrote it :


And here is the Gawriloff (skip to 1:15 in the video):
http://www.youtube.com/v/QzhAzaQQGkM
Literally, it ignites the "tutta la forza" woodwind fourth and the flurry of Bartok-pizzicato that follows.

You feel about the whip crack in Ligeti's VC like I feel about the timpani roll in the Largo movement of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. If it's not earth-shattering, then I'm immediately disappointed and nothing that follows will give me the kind of gratification I get from Lenny's Live in Japan performance with the NY Philharmonic.