★Wergo

Four post-serialistic "sound compositions" with elements of traditional Korean music from the 1960's, respectively for chamber ensemble, piano and violin, orchestra and solo organ, released on Wergo's great "Studio Reihe Neuer Musik" experimental music series in the 70's. With insert.

The superb 1976 "tape montage for two loudspeaker groups" plus another 1976 piece for 3 cellos and a 1980 composition for flute, alto and harpsichord, released on Wergo in 1982. With insert.

The Italian soprano beautifully sings works for voice and instruments by Arnold Schönberg, Hanns Eisler, Luigi Dallapiccola, Arrigo Benvenuti and Luigi Nono on this 1970 LP on Wergo's great "Studio Reihe Neuer Musik" experimental music series.

First volume of new music for choir by by some of the most inportant XXth Century composers (Anton Webern, Henri Pousseur, Dieter Schnebel, Luigi Nono, Sylvano Bussotti, Hans Otte, György Ligeti) performed by Schola Cantorum Stuttgart and released on Wergo's great "Studio Reihe Neuer Musik" experimental music series in the 70's. With insert.

Second volume of new music for choir by by Heinz Holliger, Dieter Schnebel, Krzysztof Penderecki and Friedrich Cerha, performed by Schola Cantorum Stuttgart and released on Wergo's great "Studio Reihe Neuer Musik" experimental music series in the 70's. With insert.

Two pivotal classic pieces from the 60's, respectively for piano and tape and for realistic sounds, released on Wergo's "Studio Reihe Neuer Musik" contemporary and electronic music series in 1969. Beautiful and essential.

Ten original pieces by Harald Weiss, the German composer and percussionist, "for percussion instruments, voices and original sounds". Each takes its title from an old form or dance (Reigen, Country-Song, Nocturno, Marsch, Ländler, Ostinato, Blues, Tango, Rondo, Polonaise) and turns it into something else. The pieces are honed down to the details, in a highly intelligent and ironically witty style that makes it possible to hear patterns of behaviour, of language and of thought. Weiss speaks, sing…

condition (record/sleeve): VG (record looks near mint but has surface noise throughout) / VG (general yellowing + creases on lamination partly peeling off)  Includes 4-page  LP-size insert. Essential Berio! This exceptional Wergo release features Cathy Berberian in a virtuosic performance of Circles (1960), Berio's mesmerizing setting of e.e. cummings poetry for female voice, harp, and two percussionists. The album also includes three of Berio's celebrated Sequenze – solo works that pushed instr…

1988 release. Ade, "a piece about farewell" for seven actors, singers and dancers, is a work of musical theatre by Harald Weiss, here heard without the stage. Weiss brings together elements of classical music, folk, rock and minimal music in the style that runs through all his work and escapes any classification. The ten scenes (Heimkehr, Tagtraum im Verborgenen, Elegie, Springtanz, Hymne, Tanz der Kobolde, Arie, Die Rufe der Demaskierten, Lamento, Abgesang) move between solo and choral voices, …

Maciej Śledziecki and Marion Wörle show just how exciting the world of the pipe organ is today as the ensemble gamut inc. The retro-futuristic duo uses self-programmed software to dock onto the MIDI consoles of church organs, control their stops in a manually impossible way and perform sound synthesis with surprising results. Their annual AGGREGATE festival in Berlin is a meeting place for the international “New Organ Movement” scene: electronic musicians, composers and organists from different …

2025 stock  The acoustic publication of this "Diary" by and with John Cage represents an impressive document, spoken by an extraordinary voice, produced by one of the great artists of the 20th century. The new design of the 8-CD set includes a 64-page booklet in a presentation box (digi-box, carton). The booklet contains several photographs taken in John Cage's loft and during the recording in 1991. “I began the Diary optimistically in 1965 to celebrate the work of R. Buckminster Fuller, his con…

2025 stock  The significance of the seven pieces brought together here is that they both generate a striking panorama of the intelligence of the material presented, over a period of four years, from 1939 to 1943, by the composer whom the critic Fred Goldbeck described as “the greatest Giraudouxian of our age”, and clarify in an extraordinarily oblique manner the prehistory of this “automation” of the creative act, towards which one can detect the perpetual temptation in the young Cage.

2025 stock  In 1985 György Ligeti created six piano studies. The exceptionally new of these studies is the possibility of having one player generate the vision of several different simultaneous tempo layers. The extremely high level of difficulty of these studies demands the pianist's utmost virtuosity. With Volker Banfield, Ligeti found the right pianist for his studies. The fourth study, 'Fanfares', is dedicated to Banfield. Olivier Messiaen's 'Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus', too, makes hug…

2025 stock When Pablo Casals rediscovered the cello suites of Bach at the beginning of the 20th century and firmly established them in the concert and record repertoire, the novel thing about it was that he played them "senza basso", i.e. without piano accompaniment - something that seemed quite unimaginable in the 19th century. In a time of music-historical over-maturity and experimentation, renowned composers soon came up with their own attempts, among them most famously Max Reger's "Solo Suit…

2025 stock. Three rather meditative pieces from the repertoire of Ars Acustica, the series of radio art edited by Klaus Schöning, but nevertheless: Fluxus! Philip Corner, Alison Knowles and George Brecht appeared together in performances, and they are also connected by their relationship to John Cage's aesthetic, by work with chance operations, and by Zen. Explaining Fluxus is like wanting to hold a river in your hand. Corner's Satie's Rose Cross as a Revelation takes its cue from Erik Satie's m…

2025 stock. Five graphic scores realised at the organ by Zsigmond Szathmáry, the Hungarian organist and composer, as improvisations: music that exists first as drawing and only becomes sound when a performer decides how to read it. The programme brings together Roman Haubenstock-Ramati's 'Ohne Titel', John Cage's Music for Carillon No. 5, Shin-ichi Matsushita's Konzentration, Michael Vetter's Der Kreis and Szathmáry's own Omaggio a György Ligeti, so that the organ moves from clusters and long he…

2025 stock WERGO's unique "studio reihe" series continues with a rather special CD release: The present recording of Arnold Schoenberg's "Pierrot lunaire" was the first long-playing record released by the newly founded label WERGO in 1962, which laid the foundation of the label's decades-long story of success. This important recording –with the soprano Helga Pilarczyk and under the direction of Pierre Boulez – has not been available on CD up to now. Now the label releases this highlight from its…

2025 stock Jakob Ullmann's career can be measured by the obstacles placed in his path. It was in the teeth of these obstacles that he learnt his craft: they have left their mark on his artistic stance, and the fact that he ultimately overcame them proved the rightness of his approach. For a number of reasons, Ullmann's works failed to blend into the musical landscape of the former state of East Germany. Avoiding peremptory gestures and unalterable laws, his restrained scores seemed strange and a…

2025 stock "Musica Ricercata" of 1951-53 is a collection of 11 piano pieces which even with their traditional character went beyond what was considered appropriate for performance in Hungary in the early 1950s. The tenth piece, e.g., was considered too "decadent" because of the abundance of minor seconds. The short "Capriccios" and "Invention", written in 1947-48, reveal convincingly the emergence of Ligeti's musical identity. "Monument · Selbstportrait · Bewegung" (three pieces for two pianos) …

2025 stock Under the title of “studio reihe neuer musik”, WERGO released outstanding recordings in the 1960s, thus creating a trademark of advanced contemporary music in the label's early days. On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, WERGO now releases these highlights of 20th-century music history in an excellent sound quality on CD for the first time.“studio reihe” now continues with works by Karlheinz Stockhausen:On this CD, “Zyklus für einen Schlagzeuger” [“Cycle for One Percussionist”] can…