Ligeti's discovery, based on the merest hints in Bartok, of the rich musical seam of micropolyphony, has an assured place in history. But however fine his artistry, and among avant-garde-weaned composers there is none finer, he has inevitably been faced with the limitations of that seam. Broadly speaking it dictates the virtual unrepeatability of a medium—inspiration comes from the adapting of a restricted range of techniques to a specific combination of voices and/or instruments; rarely will the same combination suggest possibilities beyond the single work. And an equally serious limitation is that performances will tend to differ only by their degree of mechanical competence, since the music allows little scope for 'interpretation'.
That at least is the impression gained from these performances of the Chamber Concerto and Ramifications. Admittedly Boulez is rather tauter in the Chamber Concerto and more expansive in Ramifications than his Wergo counterparts; but the critical ear is likely to register only that the Ensemble Intercontemporain achieve slightly better internal balance (the electronic organ in Cerha's ensemble is too prominent) and that the solo version of Ramifications on Wergo is the clearest of all three performances.
Still, I am convinced that there is a dimension beyond the notes after all it was Stravinsky who used to insist on non-interpretation at the same time as interpreting his own music with a host of unnotated, possibly unconscious, nuances. Take the two Lux aeternas. Here Gottwald is about 20 per cent slower than Franz on DG, and to my mind the gain is enormous in terms of expressive nuance and musicality. There is also more countertenor timbre in the Stuttgart performance, which emphasizes the hypnotic other-worldliness of the piece. I realize that this may be an unwarranted personal response, and I have tried to forget the fact that Gottwald's is the version on the 2001 soundtrack (where many people will, like me, first have fallen under the spell of Ligeti's music). The Wergo Atmospheres is another fine achievement reaching that state of dematerialized sound-quality which is as important to Ligeti as it is, for instance, to Scriabin. These sound like real interpretations, whereas the other works merely receive readings.
Many record-buyers will be swayed by programme contents alone. The serious Ligeti collector will presumably be following the cycle of issues and reissues on Wergo at least eight CDs to date. But the non-specialist may be drawn to the DG selection particularly at mid price. For his money he wili get a solid version of the inventive Second Quartet (but I would prefer the Arditti on Wergo WER60079-50, 8/89) and the would-be satirical but to my mind actually rather tedious Aventures (superbly performed, but also available on Wergo WER60045-50 more naturally coupled with Nouvelles Aventures and the tremendous Requiem). I should also mention a disastrous sagging of pitch at 2'36'' in the first movement of the DG Chamber Concerto. In fact neither compilation is ideally recorded—the Wergo Lux aeferna overloads nastily at climaxes and the chamber works on both records are too close-miked and congested.'