The concert at which these performances were recorded was part of the 1988 Wien Modern Festival, and although the composers represented have no close connection with Vienna (the inclusion of Berg's Op. 6 Pieces in the original concert remedied that deficiency) it is satisfying to hear the leading orchestra of a city that has always been ambivalent about the radical artistic tendencies active within it giving such convincing interpretations of challenging contemporary music.
The programme is well balanced, the elaboration and diversity of Boulez and Rihm framing the monumental but far from minimalist simplicities of Ligeti. Boulez's four miniatures (orchestral reworkings of early piano pieces) generate a huge emotional charge in the shortest of time spans, the last above all—a kind of compacted Danse sacrale, an exasperated, enthralling encapsulation of the final movement of The Rite of Spring in a little over two minutes. Wolfgang Rihm's setting of a poem by Rimbaud (the one Britten chose to end Les Illuminations) is also impeccably avant-garde in its unpredictable but (in retrospect) coherent alternations of massive and evanescent sonorities: a quirky, even eccentric conception, but a memorable response to this visionary text.
In this context the early Nono piece is a bit of a disappointment, its pared-down, Dallapiccola-style lyricism sounding more sketchy than simple: maybe it would be more effective performed by a smaller choir. But in any case the pair of works by Ligeti provides the perfect contrast to Boulez and Rihm. Atmospheres and Lontano are both studies in the exploration of space and density, compositions from which the ghost of the motive has been exorcized. It is remarkable how Ligeti conjures a music of such imposing seriousness from such basic textural elements, and Abbado ensures that the ebb and flow has all the inevitability of a force of nature. In particular, the sense of menace that impinges on the dream-like oscillations of Lontano is mesmerizing, even alarming, in such an intensely vivid recording.
The disc ends with the enthusiastic applause of an audience which has been commendably quiet up to that point. I endorse their enthusiasm, my only regret being that DG did not include the Berg Pieces as well, since Abbado's LSO recording of them is nearly 20 years old.'