This recording is probably a must-have for devoted Ligetians, but they’re likely to find it frustrating. Top of the bill is surely the Requiem, one of the most powerful statements of the last century (and I could devote many lines in defence of that thesis). Logistical considerations explain why this is only its second recording, 35 years after Michael Gielen’s for Wergo. (The score calls for a full orchestra and a choir of at least 100.) In this new account, the sound recording is more natural and better balanced (in the old recording the choir overpowers the orchestra, and the soloists seem artificially miked). But much as I admired the Berlin Phil’s live recordings of Ligeti’s other orchestral works of the ’60s in Volume 2 of the current Teldec series, their reading of the Requiem is less convincing. Gielen’s account hangs together better, both formally and dramatically, even though the orchestral detail is often clearer with Nott. (Try the beginning of the Dies irae, for instance.) Not so the choral detail, however: the Bavarian Radio Choir enunciate the text more clearly, and although Liliana Poli’s voice is not the most comfortable to listen to, its distinctive edge helps to characterise the hysteria of the Dies irae. Elsewhere, the Kyrie is both more cogent and more terrifying under Gielen, and the magical Lacrimosa, conversely, is more ethereal. In any case, the live broadcasts under Esa-Pekka Salonen, made about five years ago, seemed to me better than either: perhaps one day they will become available.

Of the remaining pieces, the Horn Concerto will attract the most attention. It is Ligeti’s most recent major score, and neatly rounds off a trio of concertos written for the individual instruments of his Horn Trio 20 years ago. It has an almost Baroque cast, in seven short movements (the whole things lasts barely a quarter of an hour); but they are not miniatures in any sense, and there is something disconcerting in the way ideas are proposed, and just as quickly withdrawn. More so even than in the Violin Concerto, there is a strong retrospective quality, too, with different movements evoking different periods from Ligeti’s output (at times one can almost pinpoint the relevant work, even the relevant passage). Such brevity and wilfully incongruous juxtapositions may come across effectively in concert, and there is much beguiling orchestration (the microtonal writing for horn continues Ligeti’s engagement with ‘magical realism’); but here the overall effect is most bizarre. As to the two remaining pieces, Ramifications (heard here in its chamber version) and the Double Concerto, they are perhaps not top-drawer Ligeti either, but both are instructive (particularly the latter) on account of their place in his output. In these three works, the Schoenberg Ensemble and the soloists distinguish themselves. All in all, this is one of the most curious recordings of my reviewing year.