Topic: Peter Eötvös, Hungarian Export

[snyprrr]

Which CD is that?  The DG recording uses countertenors.  It's superb, but I must say that I'd rather listen to females.  (I'm not big on countertenors.)

Aside from Three Sisters, I've only heard his Replica, which is very good.  He's a superb conductor, too, and recorded my favorite take on Bluebeard's Castle.

3 Sisters is on Erato.

[CRCulver]

3 Sisters is on Erato.

It's on Deutsche Grammophon, a recording in the label's "20/21" series.

[Brian]

Ah, since we've revived this thread I've got a chance to do a bit of reviving of my own. Here's a blog post I wrote in January...

The London Philharmonic Orchestra program last night opened with a UK premiere, “Shadows” by Peter Eötvös. It’s sort of a mini concerto for flute, clarinet, a percussionist with snare drum and suspended cymbal, and orchestra. It also calls for a bizarre orchestral layout in which some of the forces sit with their backs to the audience. Here’s a diagram:



I couldn’t figure out why the orchestra was asked to sit like this based on the music itself: to muffle the brass? To divide the strings really dramatically? Aside from placing the solo instruments literally in the center of the ring, there seemed to be no particular aural advantage to this. Since the performance was recorded for a CD, perhaps the CD experience will explain Eötvös’ decision.

As for the music itself: it fairly clearly was originally a chamber piece; the best movement was scored for flute and clarinet alone. At other points the orchestra interjected Scary Music chords, reminiscent of Jaws or film noir, and there were some interesting coloristic effects – neat sounds being produced by the ensemble as a whole or individual soloists. Still and all, I’m not entirely sure I could deduce from listening why Eötvös actually wrote the piece. My cynical guess is he had a nice chamber duet sitting around and fulfilled a commission by arranging it up (N.B. looking at his website, this guess is wrong; it was originally for the soloists plus a small wind ensemble and handful of strings). It achieved interesting colors and sounds but didn’t develop any sort of argument or even conversation.

Possibly this says as much about the listener as the listened.

[karlhenning]

Extracted for Henningmusick-related emphasis:

. . . the best movement was scored for flute and clarinet alone . . . .

[snyprrr]

It's on Deutsche Grammophon, a recording in the label's "20/21" series.

It must be the same performance repackaged. I do remember seeing it on Ebay (so, you know, it true! ). I am aware of the DG, so I must've subconsciously assumed. But, there is an Erato cd, a very early one, with the timing on the booklet cover if I remember correctly, and a very 'white' cover, I believe. Licensing,... ahhh.

[klingsor]

Here are two more Eötvös works, live recordings from BBC Total Immersion:

Levitation: https://rapidshare.com/files/3206307353/E__tv__s_-_Levitation_-_Hosford_Bradbury_BBC_Sym__E__tv__s___May_2011_.flac

Zero Points: https://rapidshare.com/files/3217989227/E__tv__s_-_Zero_Points_-_BBC_Sym__E__tv__s___May_2011_.flac

[Octave]

Re: the Eotvos THREE SISTERS opera:

It's on Deutsche Grammophon, a recording in the label's "20/21" series.

I owned the 20-21 recording and had it basically stolen from me by an ungrateful borrower: will I never learn?
I see that there is a 2012 edition from Budapest Music Center, a licensed reissue of the DG.  Does anyone know about this BMC edition, i.e. does it come with libretto in some form?  The cover is pretty ugly, but the DG is only affordably available as a burn-to-order CDR from Arkiv.  Here's a link to the BMC reissue:

The web page for the BMC edition has a messy libretto in romanized (?) Russian, plus liner notes:
http://www.bmcrecords.hu/pages/tartalom/index_en.php?kod=190

[vers la flamme]

I'm now hearing Replica for Viola & Orchestra (on ECM, w/ Kim Kashkashian) for the first time and really enjoying it a lot. Kind of in that Dutilleuxish/Lutoslawski-ish vein for me, a slice of contemporary music that I enjoy a good bit. Where to next with Eötvös...?

[Maestro267]

I'm a big fan of his Multiversum, for pipe organ, Hammond organ and orchestra.

[ritter]

I first got to know Eötvös's music through his opera Three Sisters (on Chekhov), recorded by DG after the premiere in Lyon in the mid-90s, and then reissued by BMG. One of the great operas of the late 20th century, IMHO.

About 5 years ago, I saw Eötvös conduct the Plural Ensemble here in Madrid in his Steine (for chamber ensemble) and his Sonata per sei (a sort of Bartók Sonata for two pianos and percussion gone berserk), and both were quite appealing (the program started with Stockhausen's Kontra-Punkte and Boulez's Improvisations sur Mallarmé 1 & 2, and it was an extraordinary concert).

There's plenty more Eötvös in my collection, but these are the pieces that come to mind now. I regard him as a great all-round musician, not only as a composer--he maintains a link with the apostles of high modernism of the 50s and 60s, but has a very personal voice--, but also as a conductor (his recordings of e.g. Stravinsky's Les noces and Berio's Sinfonia, are of the highest quality).

[vers la flamme]

I first got to know Eötvös's music through his opera Three Sisters (on Chekhov), recorded by DG after the premiere in Lyon in the mid-90s, and then reissued by BMG. One of the great operas of the late 20th century, IMHO.

About 5 years ago, I saw Eötvös conduct the Plural Ensemble here in Madrid in his Steine (for chamber ensemble) and his Sonata per sei (a sort of Bartók Sonata for two pianos and percussion gone berserk), and both were quite appealing (the program started with Stockhausen's Kontra-Punkte and Boulez's Improvisations sur Mallarmé 1 & 2, and it was an extraordinary concert).

There's plenty more Eötvös in my collection, but these are the pieces that come to mind now. I regard him as a great all-round musician, not only as a composer--he maintains a link with the apostles of high modernism of the 50s and 60s, but has a very personal voice--, but also as a conductor (his recordings of e.g. Stravinsky's Les noces and Berio's Sinfonia, are of the highest quality).

Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. I think I will seek out that Kairos disc and perhaps also the Wergo, which seems pricey, but I'll check it out first and see what I think. I too find him interesting as a conductor, seeing him as somewhat in the same vein as Pierre Boulez and Matthias Pintscher. I've been meaning to check out his Rite of Spring; I've heard it's really good. I have a disc of him conducting Stockhausen and another of him conducting Kurtág's song cycles and ...quasi una fantasia...—a really good disc.