Ligeti: Piano Concerto

“The Violin Concerto (1992) is music by a composer fascinated with Shakespeare's The Tempest: indeed, it might even prove to be a substitute for Ligeti's longmooted operatic version of the play. There are plenty of 'strange noises', the result not just of Ligeti's latter- day predilection for ocarinas, but of his remarkable ability to play off natural and artificial tunings against each other. This work is superior to the Piano Concerto because the solo violin is so much more volatile and poetic as a protagonist, an animator who 'fires up' the orchestra, functioning as a leader at odds with the led. Saschko Gawriloff is a brilliantly effective soloist, and well served by a sharply defined yet expressive accompaniment – Boulez at his most incisive – and a totally convincing recording. The other works are played and recorded with similar success. The Cello Concerto (1966) is a particularly powerful reminder of the strengths of the earlier Ligeti, where simple, basic elements generate anything but minimal consequences.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“[On vol. 4] In the year of his 80th birthday, these are glorious accounts of great 20th-century works… Ligeti continues to explore and colonise new ground voraciously… if Ligeti’s music has a trademark, it is unpredictability…He remains one of the severest critics of contemporary music, as well as one of its greatest composers” The Guardian