Search
Special Offers
Awards
Online Payment
Visit us
Presto News - 10th December 2007Stockhausen |
 Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the most important and controversial postwar composers died last Wednesday at his home in western Germany at the age of 79. My suspicion is that, although many of this column’s readers will have heard of him, not many will know much about him or his lasting influence (although many may ‘suspect’ that they will not like his works).  Born in 1928, he had lost both his parents before the age of 20. At the age of 24 he moved to Paris to study with Messiaen and Milhaud. He only lasted there 18 months, but left to become an assistant at the newly established Electronic Music Studio of NWDR in Cologne. It was in this field that he then quickly established himself as one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music and helped shape a new understanding of sound through his electronic compositions. Stockhausen produced an astonishing succession of compositions in the 1950s and early ’60s: highly abstract works that were based on rigorous principles of ordering and combination but at the same time were vivid, bold and engaging. He gained worldwide fame and became a beacon for many younger composers. His influence also crossed styles with rock and pop musicians such as John Lennon, Frank Zappa and David Bowie citing him as an influence. After that his influence declined and since the 1980s he has seemed quite a lonely figure, although he went on composing right up to his death. In fact in 2002 he completed a monumental 29-hour piece called ‘Light’ consisting of seven operas that had taken him 25 years to write. I gather it is due to be performed for the first time in its entirety next October – at a cost of around 7 million pounds! Now, the more adventurous of you may want to dip your toe into the water with a CD or two. Please bear in mind however that this is not particularly easy listening and to get anything out of this music you really need to gain some proper understanding of what is going on within it (which means at the very least studying the booklet and listening to it more than once). A lot of his recordings are not distributed to the trade and only available directly form the Stockhausen website. However, a number of commercial recordings have been made and you can view them all here. Recommended recordings of two of his most important works – Gruppen (1955-7) for three orchestras and Stimmung (1968) for six vocalists and six microphones are shown below.
|
Share
|
 Stockhausen: GruppenBerliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado, Marcus Creed, Friedrich Goldmann |
 Stockhausen: StimmungTheatre of Voices, Paul Hillier |
Chris O'Reilly - chris@prestoclassical.co.uk |
New Releases10th December 2007 |
This is just the pick of the recent releases. The New Releases and Future Releases pages are always available for browsing all the new and forthcoming releases. |
 Bach, J S: Christmas Oratorio, BWV248 (SACD)Combattimento Consort Amsterdam & Capella Amsterdam, Jan Willem de VriendBach’s celebrated Christmas Oratorio is here brought to life in a thrilling Hybrid SACD set which also includes a book that gives a fascinating incite into the background of this great masterpiece. Shortlisted for a Radio 3 Listeners Award. |
Mahler: Das Lied von der ErdeChristianne Stotijn & Donald Litaker, Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra, Martin SieghartChristianne Stotijn, one of the most celebrated young singers these days, made a lasting impression on her audience and critics when she sang Mahler’s das Lied von der Erde together with tenor Donald Litaker and the Arnhem Philharmonic under Martin Sieghart, plus wowing audiences at the BBC Proms. |
 Fitzenhagen - Cello Concerto and 8 Pieces for Cello and PianoJens Peter Maintz (cello) & Paul Rivinus (piano), Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra, Peter RundelWilhelm Fitzenhagen is probably remembered more as a cellist than a composer. It was Fitzenhagen who gave the premiere performances of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations and the Piano Trio Op. 50. The works on this CD show Fitzenhagen’s talent for composition of a very lyrical style. |
 Grieg: Slåtter, Op. 72Ingfrid Breie Nyhus (piano) & Åshild Breie Nyhus (hardanger fiddle)The folk themes (Slåtter) which Grieg arranged for piano in his opus 72 are here recorded in a new edition which incorporates modern thinking on the transcription of music originally played on the traditional Hardanger fiddle. Recorded on Grieg’s own piano at Troldhaugen. |
 Kokkonen: Cello Concerto and Symphonies 3 & 4Marko Ylönen (cello), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sakari OramoThis disc features major works of Finnish composer Joonas Kokkonen - the dominant figure in post-war Finnish music since the death of Jean Sibelius 50 years ago. The featured works were written between 1967 and 1971 during the composer's late neo-Romantic period of free tonality. Kokkonen linked himself to the symphonic tradition of Brahms and Sibelius. The Cello Concerto, with its profound central Adagio movement, is a gem in Finnish concerto literature and probably the most-performed cello concerto by any Finnish composer. |
 Bloch - Piano QuintetsPiers Lane (piano), Goldner String QuartetSerenity and meditation contrast with melancholy and savagery; primitive passions yield to poignancy, nobility and tenderness in Bloch’s accomplished chamber music. Five substantial pieces are recorded here, dating from different stages of the composer’s career and demonstrating both the programmatic elements of his writing and his Impressionistic side. Bloch’s deep affinity for string instruments and the piano is also given ample expression in these works, all of which deserve a permanent place in the chamber music repertoire. |
 The Songs of Robert Schumann - Volume 10Kate Royal (soprano), Graham Johnson (piano) with Felicity Lott (soprano), Ann Murray (mezzo-soprano) & Christoph Bantzer (reciter)Kate Royal is the soprano of the moment, at the start of her career yet an acknowledged great artist, and her performance here of the Eichendorff Liederkreis Op 39 is one where ‘imagination, intellect and vocal technique are inextricably fused in the single moment of a song’, as The Times wrote of her Wigmore Hall recital in January this year. |
 BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 8th December 2007 |
Building a Library - Strauss, R: Metamorphosen |
 First Choice - MonoWilhelm Furtwängler - an anniversary tributeA 6 CD box set including much rare material (for example this Metamorphosen) and some seminal examples of Furtwängler’s interpretative art (a Brahms First and a Bruckner Ninth), plus interviews with Furtwängler. |
 First Choice - MonoStrauss Orchestral WorksA budget 2 CD re-issue of Furtwängler's Strauss recordings from the 1940s. |
 Modern ChoiceVienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Simon Rattle |
CD of the Week |
 Brahms and Schumann - Piano QuintetsLeif Ove Andsnes (piano), Artemis Quartet |
Your details will be used only in accordance with our Privacy Policy. |
Copyright © 2002-13 Presto Classical Limited, all rights reserved.