Ligeti: Concertos

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what comes across in all this music is [Ligeti's] unerring ear for colour and harmony. The performances by Baldur Brönnimann and the Norwegian BIT20 Ensemble are brilliant throughout. An indispensable... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2017, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 27th Jan 2017
Catalogue No: BIS2209
Label: BIS
Length: 71 minutes

BBC Music Magazine

May 2017

Concerto Choice
Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2017

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Ligeti: Cello Concerto

Work length19:47

$3.55

$5.20

$7.00

Christian Poltéra
BIT20 Ensemble
Baldur Brönnimann
Recorded: October 2015
Recording Venue: Landås Kirke, Bergen

I. —

Track length12:45

$2.05

$2.60

$3.50

II. Lo stesso tempo

Track length7:02

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

Ligeti: Chamber Concerto for 13 instruments

Work length23:56

$4.50

$5.20

$7.00

BIT20 Ensemble
Baldur Brönnimann
Recorded: October 2015
Recording Venue: Landås Kirke, Bergen

I. Corrente (Fließend)

Track length9:08

$1.50

$1.30

$1.75

II. Calmo, sostenuto

Track length4:58

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Movimento preciso e meccanico

Track length5:59

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IV. Presto

Track length3:51

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Ligeti: Melodien for orchestra

Work length3:48

$1.00

$3.85

$5.25

BIT20 Ensemble
Baldur Brönnimann
Recorded: October 2015
Recording Venue: Oseana Kunst-og kultursenter, Os

Ligeti: Piano Concerto

Work length23:56

$5.00

$6.50

$8.75

Joonas Ahonen
BIT20 Ensemble
Baldur Brönnimann
Recorded: April 2014
Recording Venue: Grieghallen, Bergen

I. Vivace molto ritmico e preciso

Track length4:00

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Lento e deserto

Track length6:40

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Vivace cantabile

Track length4:16

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IV. Allegro risoluto, molto ritmico

Track length5:20

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

V. Presto luminoso. Fluido, costante, sempre molto ritmico

Track length3:40

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

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About

Described as ‘one of the most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time’, György Ligeti (1923 – 2006) was able to constantly reinvent himself. In his earliest works, written in Communist Hungary, the musical language is often an extension of that of Bartók’s and he kept his most daring compositions to himself. Escaping Hungary in 1956 he was able to revel in the freedom to experiment – with electronic techniques as well as elaborate serialism – but he was forever sceptical of schools and steered his own course throughout life. The 1960s and early 70s were a highly productive period, which saw works such as Lux Aeterna and Lontano, as well as three of the works on the present disc. In the Cello Concerto and the Chamber Concerto, Ligeti in different ways explores the idea of the concerto as something collective, rather than polarised between the one and the many. The Cello Concerto is striking, and even provocative, in that the soloist often seems to aspire to silence and even absence rather than virtuosic display. The Chamber Concerto, on the other hand, dazzles because here all 13 players are unmistakably present, all essential to the design and character of the whole. Like the Cello Concerto – and the Piano Concerto – Melodien can be performed by large orchestra, but also, as on the present recording, with a single string player per part, becoming a natural pendant to the Chamber Concerto. The disc closes with the Piano Concerto from 1988, which Ligeti had begun sketching eight years earlier but was only able to proceed with after having composed his first set of studies for piano solo. Ligeti himself described the five-movement work as a statement of his ‘aesthetic credo’. Performing these complex scores is the Norwegian specialist ensemble BIT 20 under the Swiss conductor Baldur Brönnimann, with soloists Christian Poltéra and Joonas Ahonen, making his first appearance on the BIS label.

Reviews

May 2017

what comes across in all this music is [Ligeti's] unerring ear for colour and harmony. The performances by Baldur Brönnimann and the Norwegian BIT20 Ensemble are brilliant throughout. An indispensable disc

23rd March 2017

the playing by soloists and ensemble is superb on this present disc. The sound recording is ideal too. For me, all these pieces have impressed me and have encouraged me to investigate Ligeti’s music in greater detail.

25th January 2017

Brönnimann and the ensemble...are vivid advocates of Ligeti’s music. They provide a reminder that even at its most magically elusive it retains a strong rhythmic spine...Poltéra threads his way with great subtlety through the textures that gather around him in the Cello Concerto.

Ligeti: Concertos

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