The Lachenmann Lacuna

Started by not edward, January 03, 2008, 07:39:14 PM

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not edward

There is this recording that includes Guero and Ein Kinderspiel, which is still in print, apparently.

http://www.amazon.com/Helmut-Lachenmann-Piano-Music/dp/B00009W8MW/

I haven't heard it myself, though.
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

bhodges

Ah, thanks.  $22.98...much more reasonable.  ;)

--Bruce

uffeviking

Now I can't wait to receive the DVD I ordered today, suffering from an attack of largesse towards myself:

http://www.wergo.de/shop/en_UK/Audio_CDs/1000508/show,215460.html

some guy

Guero, yes. Amazing jewel of a piece. Thanks all of you for reminding me of that.

Cool video, too. In a way, good because it's low quality.

bhodges

#24
For anyone near NYC (or planning to be), the contemporary music group Either/Or is doing a three-day Lachenmann festival, March 10, 11 and 13 at the Goethe Institut.  The composer will be present, working with the musicians on his String Quartet No. 3, "Grido" and Salut für Caudwell (which I heard them do last fall), and there will be a screening of the documentary ...wo ich noch nie war (2006), a film on Lachenmann by Bettina Ehrhardt, who will also be present.

Here is information about the film, from the Goethe Institut's site.

--Bruce

uffeviking

Some day, Dear Bruce, some day you will find an uninvited guest in your guest room, it gets more inviting looking from one New York musical happening to the next! Sure wouldn't want to miss that one. Still waiting for my WERGO DVDs!

Bruce, I'll wash your socks and do your dishes!  0:)

bhodges

Quote from: uffeviking on January 30, 2008, 11:11:39 AM
Some day, Dear Bruce, some day you will find an uninvited guest in your guest room, it gets more inviting looking from one New York musical happening to the next! Sure wouldn't want to miss that one. Still waiting for my WERGO DVDs!

Bruce, I'll wash your socks and do your dishes!  0:)

;D  ;D  ;D

Well, as they say on TV's The Price is Right, "C'mon down!"

--Bruce

uffeviking

My largesse I had mentioned before paid off: I now have the WERGO musica viva PAL DVD Furcht und Verlangen, a documentary with some of the composer's works and a discussion between him and the conductor of Klangforum Heidelberg, Walter Nußbaum.

I don't claim to understand that man's work, but I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It helps how he and the conductor talk about the performances, Lachenmann explaining what he 'hears', how he tries to put the 'sound' - Klang - on paper for the musicians to play and the speaker to 'say'. Fascinating his ...zwei Gefühle with the composer as the speaker. The other two presentations, Consolation I and II are so far out of reach for me, can't even touch them, but his Mouvement almost makes sense. Why? Because I have heard this kind of 'music' before!

I think it was in 1981 when Claude Vivier composed Marco Polo which OpusArte produced on DVD and I was fascinated by the innovative sounds Vivier produced by using the traditional musical instruments in different maneuvers, like rasping the violin bow across the head of the instrument, or speaking into the giant gong. Yes, there are sounds emerging. And today I listened to and watched Lachenmann's work and see it as an extension of what Vivier did many years ago. Unfortunately Vivier was killed in 1983 and his composing brought to a tragic halt. I am not familiar with Lachenmann's composing history, maybe be had the ideas before Vivier, or simultaneous; whatever, it's a great new idea to make one truly listen to Klang! May Lachenmann live many more productive years - and may I live long enough to eventually sing his praises as I do now about Richard Wagner!

not edward

Lachenmann's ideas do indeed come before Vivier's: the most extreme manifestation of Lachenmann's aesthetic is probably the 1970 'cello piece Pression, which is usually a hit live (even with comparatively conservative audiences) because it's so openly performative and physically gestural. Of course, many other composers have used considerable amounts of extended techniques: Lachenmann's innovation was to use them so much that playing the instrument "normally"--which always happens sooner or later in his work--brings out conventional concert sounds in a totally different and unexpected context.

I'm not surprised you didn't connect with the two Consolations: they're from before Lachenmann's mature style emerged, and while I think he's a fine composer in his mature style, I find his serial period dry as dust. Mouvement is a fairly typical "late" Lachenmann piece in the way that the fractured gestures cohere into references to Austro-German musical traditions.
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

uffeviking

Very informative reply, Edward, thank you. It's posts like yours, keeping me at GMG; always learning, receiving new information and keeping me on my toes.

This WERGO DVD helped me understanding Lachenmann in more ways than one: Seeing the composer chatting with his conductor made him a real person, a very charming one too - in spite of his hairdo!  ;)

bhodges

#30
Quote from: bhodges on January 30, 2008, 10:14:14 AM
For anyone near NYC (or planning to be), the contemporary music group Either/Or is doing a three-day Lachenmann festival, March 10, 11 and 13 at the Goethe Institut.  The composer will be present, working with the musicians on his String Quartet No. 3, "Grido" and Salut für Caudwell (which I heard them do last fall), and there will be a screening of the documentary ...wo ich noch nie war (2006), a film on Lachenmann by Bettina Ehrhardt, who will also be present.

Here is information about the film, from the Goethe Institut's site.

--Bruce

Logging off in a minute to go to the lecture/demo of Salut für Caudwell, with Lachenmann present!  I've never seen him in person so this is very exciting.  Will report on it all.

--Bruce

bhodges

From a blog new to me, A Spiral Cage, here is a report on another Lachenmann concert with the composer present (and playing!), at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

--Bruce

uffeviking

On my Way! It's only a six hour drive to Vancouver! I wonder if they have it on one of the local radio stations because I can get one or two of them, depending on the way the wind blows.

But then I wouldn't even drive over there if he comes down to Seattle; weather still too iffy and lots of delays for avalanche controls. Looks like I'll enjoy my CDs of Lachenmann!

Thanks for the news!

bhodges

Lis, it sounds like UBC has a thriving new music program.  Not sure a six-hour drive would be worth it all the time, but now and then, for something really good, could be worth investigating...

--Bruce

bhodges

Nice review today (here) in The Washington Post of the Kuss Quartet, playing Lachenmann's Third String Quartet, "Grido."

PS, the group Either/Or is doing the same quartet again next March, here in New York, along with Salut für Caudwell, the piece for two guitarists.  Info here.

--Bruce

greg

Lachenmann's Mouvement


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BHzFggEGS4

I tried following along with the score, but gave up after page 2.  :P

niwi


snyprrr

Just noticing Lachenmann's Works List is actually pretty small, with what appears to be everything available in cd form. All I have is the SQs. What IS Lachenmann's Top5? The orchestral works, in particular, I can't figure out what's what. HELP!! :o

bhodges

Unfortunately I haven't heard many of his orchestral works (hope to fix in 2012!) but I can recommend the following:

Salut für Caudwell (for two guitars)
Mouvement (for chamber orchestra)
Pression (for cello)
Guero (for piano)
Toccatina (for violin)

If you're operatically inclined, there are actually two recordings of Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern (The Little Match Girl), with the ensemble evoking chilly, icy sounds.

--Bruce


not edward

Personal favourites from Lachenmann's orchestral oeuvre:

Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied: the history of German music refracted through a brilliant if pitch-black sense of humour.
Harmonica: a tuba anti-concerto with a wonderful anti-cadenza at the middle.
Staub: Lachenmann's response to a concert companion for Beethoven's 9th; takes hints of that work and grinds them into the dust of the title.
Klangschatten: pianos and strings, never sounding remotely like they usually do: music made from the bits usually left behind, like Plato's shadows on the cave wall.
Schwankungen am Rand: another 70s Lachenmann piece; with remarkable use of thunder sheets.


I didn't think everything orchestral was available on CD: never heard of a recording of Schreiben, nor the very early pieces. Maybe I'm behind the times--I don't even have Concertini yet. :P
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music