One More Selection From Ligeti

This disk isn't part of the Ligeti Project series but follows a similar selective approach. The piece for string orchestra and 12 solo strings Ramifications is the only duplicate item with the other disks I have, played here by Ensemble InterContemporain under Pierre Boulez. The same forces perform the Chamber Concerto for 13 instrumentalists and Aventures for 3 singers and 7 instrumentalists. The Chamber Concerto illustrates Ligeti's interest in composing with layers of material in different metres and different tempi. The scoring is for woodwind, brass, two keyboards and string quartet. Aventures is a singular work with vocalising around a text without meaning but with an implied theatrical thrust to it. It is almost like a drastically compressed opera buffa. There are two other works on the disk which don't feature Boulez's ensemble. The Lasalle Quartet play String Quartet No 2. This is a five section work, which contains many of Ligeti's preoccupations such as the interlocking of various layers on a kind of grid or grill system. The work is not thematic in any way but the links with the tradition of the genre can be sensed, as can the passion in the music. The final work on the disk is Lux Aeterna for a 16 voice acapella mixed chorus, a role fulfilled by the Chor des Norddeutschen Rundfunks Hamburg directed by Helmut Franz. This sets another part of the mass for the dead that was omitted from requiem and like that piece, it was used by Coppola in the film 2001. Certainly the weird other wordly feel of the vocals fits that context. On a more musical note, it marked the return of harmony to Ligeti's work.