Music from Hungary

Terrific nine-CD box (digipack CD sleeves!) at a fantastic price! The heart of Ligeti's output, and the basis for the consensus that places him among the 20th Century's most important composers, is the series of masterworks written during his middle period, which lasted from roughly 1957 (after his escape from Hungary) to 1977 (marked by the completion of his opera Le Grand Macabre). The "sound surface" compositions from the period, including Atmosphères, the Requiem, Lux Aeterna and much of the…

Long deleted, this is a Laszlo Dubrovay's 1988 LP with compositions for string quartet, bass flute and cello (performed by Frances Marie Uitti

Some 150 years apart, both composers developed minute nuclei into an ever expanding cosmos of sound, each against the background of his own era. Prick up your ears – Schubert's Fantasy in F minor and Sonata in B flat major D 617 crossed with Ligeti's Three pieces for two pianos: rich in contrasts, upsetting, and in a simply stunning interpretation by Andreas Grau & Götz Schumacher. In the beginning there was simply the idea of playing Schubert and Ligeti together in one program: "During the perf…

The pieces for piano/cembalo on this CD include the first two Capriccios by the 24-year-old Ligeti, the Musica ricercata, and the first volume of the legendary Études, in brilliant interpretations by the German pianist Erika Haase. Ligeti was a master in how to make tricky compositional systems appear as more than just that by inspiring them with sensual substance: that's what distinguishes the artist from the artisan. Throughout his life Ligeti kept his ears pricked up and his senses sharpened …

Today, the piano concertos by Béla Bartók are regarded as works of classic modernism and are considered suitable even for conservative audiences. Musica Viva, the concert series for contemporary music in Munich, included the piano concertos in their program back in 1957, a time when it was by no means a matter of course to hear this music in established concert halls. The man at the piano was one of the greatest of his trade: Géza Anda, a fervent and uncompromising advocate of Bartók's oeuvre, w…

With the passing of Gyorgy Ligeti on 12 June, 2006 at the age of 83 in Vienna following a lengthy illness, the musical world has lost a true maverick. An independent thinker, Ligeti charted a singular route in his music with the evolution of a voice that is hard to ignore. In this respect one is tempted to put him alongside figures such as Boulez, Cage, Stockhausen and Xenakis when considering the major shapers of late 20th century composition.

All eighteen of György Ligeti's Études pour piano in three books (from 1985), played by Thomas Hell in a recording by Deutschlandradio Kultur.

György Ligeti's organ works Volumina, Harmonies and Coulée, with Musica ricercata arranged for organ, plus Dominik Susteck's improvisations Sprachsignale, played by Susteck on the organ of the Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Cologne.

Heiner Goebbels' Walden (1998) for expanded orchestra and speaker, after Thoreau. Ensemble Modern Orchestra conducted by Peter Eötvös, with Bob Rutman as speaker, singer and on steel cello and bow chimes. Recorded live in November 1998 in Cologne and Frankfurt.

Live recording of Thomas Zehetmair's June 2014 farewell concert as Music Director of the Royal Northern Sinfonia at The Sage Gateshead: John Casken's double concerto That Subtle Knot with Ruth Killius (viola), Bartók's Viola Concerto and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5.

Third volume of the Danish String Quartet's Prism series: Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14 Op. 131, Bartók's String Quartet No. 1 and Bach's Fugue BWV 849 (arr. Förster). Recorded November 2017 at the Reitstadel, Neumarkt; produced by Manfred Eicher.

Violin and piano works by Ravel (Sonate posthume), Franck (Sonata in A major), Ligeti (Duo, first recording) and Messiaen (Thème et variations), played by Natascia and Raffaella Gazzana; recorded March 2017 at Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano.

Hungarian pianist Dénes Várjon plays Schumann's Fantasiestücke op. 12, Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit and Bartók's Im Freien. Recorded in April 2016 at Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Violin sonatas by Bartók (No. 2, 1922) and Schnittke (Quasi una sonata, 1967-68) and Lutosławski's Partita (1984), played by Miranda Cuckson and Blair McMillen; recorded in Lugano in January 2015, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Kim Kashkashian plays György Kurtág's Signs, Games and Messages for solo viola (nineteen pieces) and György Ligeti's Sonata for viola solo (1991-94), recorded in May 2011 at Propstei St. Gerold and produced by Manfred Eicher.

The Keller Quartett plays György Ligeti's String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 with the Molto adagio from Samuel Barber's String Quartet op. 11 between them. Recorded June 2007 and October 2011 at Radio Studio DRS, Zürich.

Lutosławski's Musique funèbre and Bartók's Divertimento, Romanian Folk Dances and seven choruses, played by the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester under Dennis Russell Davies with the Hungarian Radio Children's Choir, recorded at the Liederhalle, Stuttgart, in 2004 and 2010.

Solo cello recital by Miklós Perényi: Britten's Third Suite op. 87, Bach's Suite No. 6 BWV 1012 and Ligeti's Sonata. Recorded November 2009 at the RSI Auditorio in Lugano, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Duo recital by Thomas Zehetmair (violin) and Ruth Killius (viola) with works by Scelsi, Holliger, Bartók, Skalkottas, Maxwell Davies, Martinů, Rainer Killius and Nied. Recorded May 2009 at Radio Studio DRS, Zürich.

Friedrich Cerha's Cello Concerto (1989/1996), with its dedicatee Heinrich Schiff as soloist, and Franz Schreker's Chamber Symphony (1916), played by the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra under Peter Eötvös. Recorded September 2003 in Hilversum.