György Ligeti (1923-2006)

[MDL]

Same here. That would be an unbelievable experience, especially seeing a world-class orchestra perform like the Berliners for example:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOlXgCaKhIQ

I've heard it live conducted by Dohnanyi, Salonen and Nott. If you get a chance to hear it live, I'd recommend sitting fairly close to the orchestra because in the flesh, it's much quieter than you might realise from recordings.
Strange, but that's been my experience of it.

[not edward]

I think one of the main things is you've got to keep an open-mind when you're listening and you have to approach the music with a different set of ears than you do when you listen to say Schubert or Dvorak.

Certainly true--yet when I listen to Lontano, I hear Bruckner behind the Ligetian colours and surface.

I think one of the hallmarks of Ligeti's greatness was that once he'd worked through through the potential of his "clocks and clouds" phase he was able to come up with a new, equally compelling style. The music from the horn trio on may have more in common with Bartok, Janacek and Stravinsky (the three composers that Ligeti himself cited in one of his last interviews) yet it could be by no-one else.

[Mirror Image]

Certainly true--yet when I listen to Lontano, I hear Bruckner behind the Ligetian colours and surface.

I think one of the hallmarks of Ligeti's greatness was that once he'd worked through through the potential of his "clocks and clouds" phase he was able to come up with a new, equally compelling style. The music from the horn trio on may have more in common with Bartok, Janacek and Stravinsky (the three composers that Ligeti himself cited in one of his last interviews) yet it could be by no-one else.

I'm still familiarizing myself with Ligeti's output, but I have really come to enjoy many of the works, in addition to the ones I mentioned above, Requiem, Piano Concerto, Hamburg Concerto, and the Violin Concerto. There is one section of Sippal, dobbal, nadihegeduvel that is so freaking addicting like one of those damn pop songs that just linger in your head for days after hearing it.

[Joaquimhock]

Fascinating performance of Ligeti's Requiem by Salonen and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Salonen_Presences_Ligeti_Messiean/

If someone know how to save this precious video...

[MDL]

Fascinating performance of Ligeti's Requiem by Salonen and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Salonen_Presences_Ligeti_Messiean/

If someone know how to save this precious video...

Amazing! Thanks for posting. How long will this video stay up?

[Joaquimhock]

177 days.

three other Salonen concerts (one to come) with works by Lutoslawski and Saariaho for instance: http://sites.radiofrance.fr/chaines/concerts09/presence/  Click on "VOIR LA VIDEO"

[bhodges]

Fascinating performance of Ligeti's Requiem by Salonen and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Salonen_Presences_Ligeti_Messiean/

If someone know how to save this precious video...

Wow! Thanks for posting that!

--Bruce

[Mirror Image]

BUMP

I've recently been listening to some Ligeti in particular the Violin Concerto. Ligeti never stopped growing as a composer.

[Mirror Image]

Ligeti has been swimming around in my mind for several days. I'm planning a revisit of the Ligeti Project box on Teldec soon. I have to say that I love his approach to color, but his approach is far removed from Messiaen's or Boulez's. There also always seems like there's rhyme and reason to his music. It's always driven by some motif or idea. Forward motion is always there even when the music seems stagnant.

[snyprrr]

Ligeti has been swimming around in my mind for several days. I'm planning a revisit of the Ligeti Project box on Teldec soon. I have to say that I love his approach to color, but his approach is far removed from Messiaen's or Boulez's. There also always seems like there's rhyme and reason to his music. It's always driven by some motif or idea. Forward motion is always there even when the music seems stagnant.

Kinda like Villa-Lobos!

[Mirror Image]

Kinda like Villa-Lobos!

Lol...

You know that's a fair shot. I realize that I'm in a minority with my VL praise parading, but you know what? His music is just so inspiring to me that no matter the criticism, I just roll with it.

[just Jeff]

Next up on my needle dropping adventures (doing CD-Rs from LPs never issued on CD) is this rather rare EMI LP from the UK (stickered for Germany).  There was another (later) recording of the work from the Stockholm Wind Quintet on Caprice, but I'll stick with the original EMI recording that had György's involvement.

If there is a CD release of this, I ain't seen it.

[Mirror Image]

Time to revive this thread. What does everybody think of the Violin Concerto? I think this is a remarkable work and may be one of the finest concertos of the last 50 years or so.

[lescamil]

Time to revive this thread. What does everybody think of the Violin Concerto? I think this is a remarkable work and may be one of the finest concertos of the last 50 years or so.

Totally agree. I would consider it to be Ligeti's best concerto (I wish I liked the piano concerto as much as the violin concerto) and the best of his late works. One thing that occurred to me recently is that Thomas Adès's new violin concerto seems to take a lot from the Ligeti, in particular the opening. Hey, not a bad composer to steal from, and I'm sure Stravinsky would agree.

[Mirror Image]

Totally agree. I would consider it to be Ligeti's best concerto (I wish I liked the piano concerto as much as the violin concerto) and the best of his late works. One thing that occurred to me recently is that Thomas Adès's new violin concerto seems to take a lot from the Ligeti, in particular the opening. Hey, not a bad composer to steal from, and I'm sure Stravinsky would agree.

I can't say that I've heard any of Adès' music. I've read some things about him, but do you think this is a composer I would enjoy since I like Lindberg, Ligeti, Salonen, and Dutilleux?

[lescamil]

I can't say that I've heard any of Adès' music. I've read some things about him, but do you think this is a composer I would enjoy since I like Lindberg, Ligeti, Salonen, and Dutilleux?

He's RIGHT up your alley. He has a slightly more cosmopolitan sound (a bit more than Salonen) and a very highly rhythmically complex language (similar to Ligeti's later music). He's relatively young, too, so we have a lot to look forward to. His large orchestral work Asyla is the best place to start with him. It sounds like it came directly from the soundworld of Ligeti and Salonen (think LA Variations).

[Mirror Image]

He's RIGHT up your alley. He has a slightly more cosmopolitan sound (a bit more than Salonen) and a very highly rhythmically complex language (similar to Ligeti's later music). He's relatively young, too, so we have a lot to look forward to. His large orchestral work Asyla is the best place to start with him. It sounds like it came directly from the soundworld of Ligeti and Salonen (think LA Variations).

Very cool. Thanks for the recommendation. I think I have the performance of Asyla in the Simon Rattle British box set. I'll have to dig it out and, in the meantime, buy some Ades recordings.

[not edward]

Totally agree. I would consider it to be Ligeti's best concerto (I wish I liked the piano concerto as much as the violin concerto) and the best of his late works. One thing that occurred to me recently is that Thomas Adès's new violin concerto seems to take a lot from the Ligeti, in particular the opening. Hey, not a bad composer to steal from, and I'm sure Stravinsky would agree.

Agreed there; late Ligeti seems to me to be a really major influence on Adès's more recent work.

As for the violin concerto, I wouldn't argue with calling it his finest concerto and one of his key works: with its borrowings from Musica ricercata and the horn trio, its place in Ligeti's output seems almost to be as a final summing up of his career, given that there was little more to follow.

I've heard it live three times now, and I don't think it's an accident that every time it's been a big hit with audience members who weren't necessarily predisposed to liking "difficult" new music (similarly with the Etudes, of course).

I have wanted Christian Tetzlaff to record this work for so long now; his performance of it at the 2000 Edinburgh Festival still lingers in my mind.

[lescamil]

As for the violin concerto, I wouldn't argue with calling it his finest concerto and one of his key works: with its borrowings from Musica ricercata and the horn trio, its place in Ligeti's output seems almost to be as a final summing up of his career, given that there was little more to follow.

The piano concerto takes quite a bit from the first book of piano etudes, so one can argue that that piece is also quite derivative, not that there's anything wrong with that. The cello concerto and chamber concerto seem to be entirely "original", if one could even say that, given that the style is completely different. I would agree that the violin concerto is a sort of summing up, though.

What is the overall opinion of the Hamburg Concerto? I really like the use of the extra horns as natural brass instruments in it, much like in the horn trio. However, I feel that the piece is just too short, and I wish it were a bit more substantial, similar to the violin concerto.

[Mirror Image]

Agreed there; late Ligeti seems to me to be a really major influence on Adès's more recent work.

As for the violin concerto, I wouldn't argue with calling it his finest concerto and one of his key works: with its borrowings from Musica ricercata and the horn trio, its place in Ligeti's output seems almost to be as a final summing up of his career, given that there was little more to follow.

I've heard it live three times now, and I don't think it's an accident that every time it's been a big hit with audience members who weren't necessarily predisposed to liking "difficult" new music (similarly with the Etudes, of course).

I have wanted Christian Tetzlaff to record this work for so long now; his performance of it at the 2000 Edinburgh Festival still lingers in my mind.

I imagine Tetzlaff would do great things with this work. Frank Peter Zimmermann did a fantastic job with it on Teldec. Very inspiring performance. I wouldn't call Ligeti's music difficult now, especially for me, because I have been exposed to it for a long period of time. There are people who don't get Ligeti and I except that. I don't get Messiaen, but a lot of people love his music, so I think it's all a matter of how the music is presented to us and how it sounds. Ligeti wasn't too difficult to get into especially coming from a heavy diet of Berg, Schoenberg, and Dutilleux. A person does have to approach Ligeti differently. His music asks different things of the listener, but this can be said of all music.