Ligeti Volume 7
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: György Ligeti
Label: Ligeti Edition
Magazine Review Date: 4/1998
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 71
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: SK62309

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Trio |
György Ligeti, Composer
György Ligeti, Composer Marie Luise Neunecker, Horn Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Piano Saschko Gawriloff, Violin |
(6) Bagatelles |
György Ligeti, Composer
György Ligeti, Composer London Winds |
(10) Pieces |
György Ligeti, Composer
György Ligeti, Composer London Winds |
Sonata for Viola |
György Ligeti, Composer
György Ligeti, Composer Tabea Zimmermann, Viola |
Author: Fabrice Fitch
In common with previous volumes in the series, this issue presents music from the 1950s and 1960s (Ten Pieces, Bagatelles) to the 1980s and 1990s (Horn Trio, Viola Sonata). I’ve had reservations about the resulting stylistic schizophrenia, but here the works are more evenly matched in terms of quality than elsewhere. Those looking for a specific reason to buy this disc need look no further than the account of the Horn Trio, Ligeti’s homage to Brahms, a work which has become a classic of its kind (to judge by the number of recordings – this is the fifth by my count). What distinguishes this version is the astonishing horn-playing of Marie-Luise Neunecker. It is no disrespect to her rivals to say that the horn part in this piece has always seemed fiendishly difficult (no doubt it is); but the impression of near-effortlessness and breadth of dynamic range Neunecker conveys are hardly likely to be bettered. As to her companions, they have both recorded the Trio before (each on different labels), and their experience is audible. I find this interpretation especially effective at projecting the music’s multiple levels and layers. As to its expressive power, even those who find Ligeti’s later music problematic can hardly deny the poignant, tragic beauty of the concluding Lamento.
The two sets of wind pieces are given polished, bravura performances by London Winds. The Bagatelles are among the composer’s most convincing music from Ligeti’s pre-Western period; as to the Ten Pieces, they plough the same furrow as those two masterpieces from the same year (1968), the Second String Quartet and Continuum for harpsichord (and the Chamber Concerto, begun the following year); but they are altogether more lightweight, their brevity almost provocative when heard against the broader canvas of those other works.
Provocative in a very different way is the Viola Sonata, completed in 1994. Ligeti’s increasing reinvestiture of diatonicism has rarely seemed less ironic; yet his protestations against being considered a ‘post-modern’ composer are increasingly difficult to accept at face value. Is this the jester’s double-bluff? That is for the listener to decide. But listen you must, to Tabea Zimmermann’s commanding and expressive playing, and to a composer for whom confounding the critics’ expectations has always been second nature.'
The two sets of wind pieces are given polished, bravura performances by London Winds. The Bagatelles are among the composer’s most convincing music from Ligeti’s pre-Western period; as to the Ten Pieces, they plough the same furrow as those two masterpieces from the same year (1968), the Second String Quartet and Continuum for harpsichord (and the Chamber Concerto, begun the following year); but they are altogether more lightweight, their brevity almost provocative when heard against the broader canvas of those other works.
Provocative in a very different way is the Viola Sonata, completed in 1994. Ligeti’s increasing reinvestiture of diatonicism has rarely seemed less ironic; yet his protestations against being considered a ‘post-modern’ composer are increasingly difficult to accept at face value. Is this the jester’s double-bluff? That is for the listener to decide. But listen you must, to Tabea Zimmermann’s commanding and expressive playing, and to a composer for whom confounding the critics’ expectations has always been second nature.'
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.

Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
Subscribe
Gramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.