Editorial Reviews

Late-20th-century modernism is not known for its accessibility. The very term "modern music" still sends many people running in the opposite direction. But if anyone can lure listeners in, it is surely Györgi Ligeti. Some may be put off by the high level of dissonance in his music or by its complexity, yet for those with open ears and minds, Ligeti's sonic canvases have colors and textures as engaging and fantastic as the best paintings of Paul Klee or Vassily Kandinsky. Not even Berio has made such strange and wonderful sounds. And unlike Ligeti's ever-serious modernist schoolmates, Boulez, Stockhausen, and Nono, his music is full of chuckles, chortles, and more than a few guffaws. In the 1990s, Sony Classical began recording all of the Hungarian-born composer's major works, a laudable project that was prematurely aborted. Thankfully, Teldec has taken up where Sony left off. This is the first installment of the German label's "Ligeti Project" -- and it is an auspicious beginning. Reinbert de Leeuw's music making can be overly precious, but here he leads performances full of vitality as well as refinement. The Schönberg Ensemble's performance of the Chamber Concerto (1970) is not only more lyrical than Boulez's (DG), but more fanciful, too. Pierre-Laurent Aimard's pyrotechnics in the Piano Concerto (1988) are even more dazzling here than in his earlier version, and the recorded balance is better. The delicate aural tapestry of Melodien (1971) gleams and glistens, and while Mysteries of the Macabre (drawn from the 1977 opera Le Grand Macabre) is not the composer's most substantive creation, this playful, jazzy interpretation is a delight. All in all, this is brilliant stuff, and it's not as daunting as some might think. Andrew Farach-Colton, Barnes & Noble

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