Browse by Label: WERGO (GERMANY)

Artist:	SATIE, ERIK
Title:	Inside The Dream
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	ALC 5107CD

"Inside the Dream evolved out of a live, multimedia performance, complete with multi channel sound and augmented with club-style electronics. The brain-child of Jurgen Grozinger, this project glorifies the surrealist movement in general and the work of Robert Desnos in particular. The disc includes a selection Grözinger's arrangements of Satie's works (including his beloved 'Gnosiennes'), flanked by Grozinger's own works, which were written as an homage to Satie. All are performed with the perfect balance of melancholy and desire by the European Music Project, under the direction of the composer/arranger."

Artist:	BERLIN & ENSEMBLE, MOSHE
Title:	Aneinu! Hasidic-Orthodox Music
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	SM 1628

"Aneinu! contains repertoire from the Israeli Hasidic-Orthodox klezmer tradition. The field recordings of Israel's foremost klezmer clarinetist, Moshe Berlin, were made by ethnomusicologist Joel Rubin in a yeshiva during the ceremony celebrating the end of the holiday Simchat Torah. They show the vital role that the music of the klezmorim and the ecstatic singing of nigunim (melodies of spiritual elevation) play among orthodox Jews, displaying at the same time a microcosm of the variety of ethnic and cultural influences to be found in the musical traditions of Israel today."

Artist:	OLBRISCH, MARTIN
Title:	FM o99.5
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	WER 2054-2CD

Selections from a Radiophonic Installation piece, originally broadcast for 48 hours in Donaueschingen in 1993, a streaming sampling of electronically processed sound & richly developed. "From the very beginning, it was a network of references between music, commentary and Hörspiel, of sound, noise and voices. Because its material is gleaned from diverse acoustic situations, paradoxes arise. A string harmonic can be louder than an orchestral tutti, the sharp breathy sound of a flute can blow away an entire woodwind ensemble. Music can suddenly change into a concrete description of a situation or vice versa. All of these moments join to create a virtual sound space which only apparently reproduces the picture of a real event in its totality."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Surround Music
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	DVD-AUDIO
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 2058

"This DVD-Audio disc (only playable in DVD-A compatible DVD players) offers innovative works from three different musical styles that do not use surround sound for effects but as musical means. Fifty minutes of surround music were played by some of the best electronic musicians and recorded live at ZKM and are recorded here under the name Fiber Jelly. Alvin Lucier's classic 'I Am Sitting in a Room' is presented in a live production with eight rooms resonating at the same rinse. And Medusa by Ludger Brummer for two percussionists and four-channel sound synthesis was recorded and mixed at ZKMs Blue Cube, the surround-music studio par excellence." Composers: Alvin Lucier, Ludger Brummer, Justin Bennett, Kaffe Matthews, Anne Wellmer, Fiber Jelly.

Artist:	BRUMMER, LUDGER
Title:	Thrill
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	DVD-AUDIO
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 2059

DVD audio/video. "On this DVD, composer Ludger Brummer's works are presented for the first time in their original, multi-channel format. Each and every detail of these works was created on a computer. The acoustic idea uses techniques that give the sound a realistic and natural impression in space. Thrill is a strange kind of Musique Concrete: All of its sounds are created with physical models. All the sounds should be considered to be true 'natural' and since they sound out or the speaker they are as well real -- but artificial in the same moment. It is audible that the sounds have references to real existing sound phenomena. As a bonus, two videos (4-channel audio) are included, in which Brümmer collaborates with video artist Silke Braemer."

Artist:	KNOX/BRIAN O'REILLY, GARTH
Title:	Spectral Strands
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	DVD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 2062

"Viola virtuoso Garth Knox, in concert with well-known video artist Brian O'Reilly, created Spectral Strands, an unique audiovisual program that features compositions by Giacinto Scelsi, Salvatore Sciarrino, Gérard Grisey, Michael Edwards and Kaija Saariaho. Although the rainbow is a familiar object, the discovery that ordinary light can be split into a spectacular spectrum of color remains a source of wonder. In 'spectral music' the same concept is been applied to sound, and the resulting sound colors, obtained with the help of electronics, are no less spectacular and have excited a whole generation of composers." All region DVD; running time: 57 minutes.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Sound Art At Het Apollohuis
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$48.00
Catalog #:	WER 2069

"Between 1980 and 1997, artists presented a panoply of exhibitions, installations, performances, and concerts, and engaged in lively debate on art theory, at Het Apollohuis in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Under the direction of founders Paul and Helene Panhuysen, the building became an important center for an avant-garde that bridged the visual arts and music. Since 2009, the archives of Het Apollohuis have been located at ZKM in Karlsruhe, where scholars are examining, documenting, and preserving this valuable store of sound, text, and pictorial materials. This CD and 72-page booklet presents excerpts from previously unpublished concert and performance recordings of important artists who appeared during the lifespan of Het Apollohuis." Artists include : Petr Kotík, Jackson MacLow, Alvin Lucier, Jaap Blonk, John Cage, Hugh Davies, Paul DeMarinis, David Dramm, Arnold Dreyblatt, Judy Dunaway, Max Eastley, Shelley Hirsch, Rolf Julius, Thomas Koner, Ron Kuivila, Chris Mann, David Moss, Phil Niblock, Bob Ostertag, Paul Panhuysen, Jim Pomeroy, Akio Suzuki, The Michael Gordon Philharmonic, Mark Trayle, and Z'EV.

Artist:	LIGETI, GYORGY
Title:	Requiem
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 60045

"Captivating. One of the unique aspects of Ligeti's music is his ability to project dense, chromatic webs of sound with an almost Mozartian clarity; this disconcerting sensation is masterfully reproduced in this performance of Ligeti's Requiem by conductor Michael Gielen. The finale--calamitous, but strangely withdrawn--represents the composer at his most dramatic. And yes, this is the music Stanley Kubrick used to accompany the discovery of the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Also on this disc are two other essential works, 'Aventures' and 'Nouvelles Aventures', highly comic, highly theatrical, justly celebrated choral works." --Joshua Cody

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Kontakte
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6009

Kontakte is a Stockhausen classic from 1959, for electronics, percussion and piano (played here by David Tudor). One of his "moment form" compositions, which "...lead up to no climax, nor do they have prepared, and thus expected, climaxes, nor the usual introductory, intensifying, transitional, and cadential stages which are related to the curve of development in a whole work; they are rather immediately intense and -- permanently present -- endeavor to maintain the level of continued 'peaks' up to the end; forms in which at any moment one may expect a maximum or a minimum, and in which one is unable to predict with certainty the direction of the development from any given point... leading to timelessness."

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Klavierstucke I-XI
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$48.00
Catalog #:	WER 60135

Pioneering piano studies, composed throughout the 1950s, recorded in 1985-86 by Herbert Henck. "Stockhausen experimented with different modes of attack and pedaling which modify the vibration of the strings and with silent depression of the keys which frees particular strings to resonate. In this way he achieved a 'filtering' of the sound spectrum that comes after the attack... the result was a rich palette of overtones and echo sounds which emphasized as never before the piano's characteristic resonance and its unique ability to suggest sound effects in perspective." --Herbert Henck

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Sonatas & Interludes For Prepared Piano
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 60156

Written in 1946-48 for prepared piano, recorded in 1975 by Joshua Pierce. "...represents the culmination of his work with the solo prepared piano, which had been his musical invention a decade before. Essentially, into the bed of piano strings he put such objects as large wooden screws, bolts of various sizes, pieces of plastic and rubber -- in short, a panoply of devices that transformed the sound of the piano strings... it, more than anything he had done to that time, showed his colleagues that Cage should be considered an important composer." --Richard Kostelanetz

Artist:	LIGETI, GYORGY
Title:	Continuum
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 60161

Originally released 1988. "This CD of works by the Hungarian composer György Ligeti represents an extremely interesting combination of several of his serene works for harpsichord, organ and wind quintet with two electronic compositions from the late 1950s." Recorded in 1957/58/62/70. Performed by Zsigmond Szathmáry, Antoinette Vischer & Karl-Erik Welin. Features: "Continuum für Cembalo" (1968); "Zehn Stücke für Bläserquintett" (1968); "Artikulation" (1958, elektronische Komposition); "Glissandi" (1957, elektronische Komposition); "Etüden für Orgel" (1967-9); "Volumina für Orgel (1. Fassung)" (1961-2).

Artist:	BERIO, LUCIANO
Title:	Circles/Sequenza I/Sequenza III/Sequenza V
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6021

Circles is a piece based on e.e. Cummings texts, performed by Cathy Berberian. Berio's "Sequenzas" are a series of pieces designed for soloists to extend the boundaries of their musical isolation as far as possible. Sequenza I performed here by Aurele Nicolet for solo flute. Sequenza III by Berberian for solo voice; "The scale of possibilities in vocal expression... from stammering to long held passages, from a wild cry to hastily articulated babbling." Sequenza V is for solo trombone, by Vinko Globokar; "...completely unexpected and unfamiliar sounds, which are unquestionably closer to electronic music... by simultaneously singing and playing different, and precisely described notes which are carefully selected by virtue of their dissonant friction..." ? Henri Pousseur.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	25 Year Retrospective Concert
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	3CD
Price:	$48.00
Catalog #:	WER 6247

The legendary performance at Town Hall, NY May 15, 1968; previously available as a ltd. private pressing 3LP box set. "The pieces performed were written over a period of 25 years, between 1934 and 1958. Presented together, they reflect not only Cage's search for new compositional processes and means of expression, they also already contain the seed for all the technical procedures and the ideological basis of his later compositions: the interest in Eastern philosophies, the involvement with 'silence', and the introduction of chance as compositional procedure." Includes classic early prepared-piano works, "Imaginary Landscape No. 1" (a recording of constant and variable frequency records, cymbal and piano), percussion ensemble, tape music, "Concert for Piano & Orchestra," etc. Comes with a 92 page booklet, with in-depth notes, historic photos, score reproductions, etc. One of the nicest Cage items you could imagine.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Roaratorio - An Irish Circus on 'Finnegans Wake'
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 6303

An excellent, indecipherable code of radio work based on James Joyce's text, with Cage reading. "...Cage's experiences with music and poetry, oral recitation and tape montage, and his close association with Zen Buddhism, lead to an all-inclusive cosmology built out of human voices, natural sounds, sounds coming out of his environment, noises, singing, and music...the montage is expanded by the inclusion of Irish ballads, jigs, and instrumental music which he recorded in Ireland." --Klaus Schoning

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$44.00
Catalog #:	WER 6310

"James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet is a poetic, philosophical spoken piece by John Cage, based on his memories of decades of studying the works of Joyce, Duchamp and Satie. Live performances in German and English took place in 1987 at the 'NachtCageTag' of WDR Cologne to mark the 75th birthday of the composer and in 1990 at the WDR Sound Art Festival '2nd Acustica International' in New York. Both versions feature an outstanding cast, including some of the giants of 20th century composition."

Artist:	SCHWITTERS, KURT
Title:	What a Beauty/Die Ursonate
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 6313

A year after deleting the original, historic Schwitters recordings of "Ursonate", Wergo release these new recordings (from 2004) by Die Schwindlinge (a women, Silke Egeler-Wittmannn, plus 2 guys who look like they just got back from the lipstick factory). Well, there's tragedy all around us and this CD is pure cabaret nonsense. I know that we could all extend our "sense of humor" and just "enjoy" the wackiness, but the only sentence that complements the conclusion of this CD is: "Please Kill Me."

"The members of the ensemble Die Schwindlinge present the 'Ursonate,' 'An Anna Blume,' 'what a b what a b what a beauty,' 'Ribble Bobble Pimlico,' 'From dawn to dark' and further sound-poetical works by Dadaist composer Kurt Schwitters. These works exemplify Schwitters' motto, 'May my humorous laughter be a sign that we will have an entertaining time together.' Schwitters (1887-1948) was an exceptionally gifted reciter and lecturer -- although less as someone who forms language than as someone who deforms it. As an artist-clown, the bourgeois Schwitters was capable of giving free rein to his anarchistic and chaotic tendencies. As a performing artist he took the goals of the modern architect, 'light, air, and sun' and added another, laughter."

Artist:	STAUB, VOLKER
Title:	Suarogate
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	WER 6545

"Suarogate" is a work of some '70s minutes' duration for vocal quartet, flute, trumpet, trombone, steel strings, percussion instruments (three players) and sirens. "Whether produced by nature or by human beings, logs or metal containers, Staub turned these objects into his 'acoustical material' in the original sense of the word. He was, in a manner of speaking, constantly en route on a voyage of discovery of sounds. At first, he built his own instruments and the result is marked by a close proximity to arte provera, a rejection of overblown techniques, and an almost ecological renunciation of compositional devices. The second stage is the compositional process per se, e.g. the gradual incorporation of traditional instruments in his wholly original 'sound concretisations'. Volker Staub's composition is formed of 23 (partially interpenetrating) pieces which form new entities at a higher level of organisation."

Artist:	HADDAD, SAED
Title:	Deux Visages
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6578

Performed by Ensemble Modern. Featured works: Le Contredésir, Les Deux Visages de l'Orient, Études mystérieuses, The Sublime, On Love I, On Love II. "Saed Haddad views good music as needing, in addition to many intangible elements, a balance of physical and metaphysical traits. In the former category, he includes beauty, energy, magic, tension and virtuosity. In the latter category rest elusive concepts: the existential, the intellectual, the transcendental. The compositions presented on this CD belong to two periods of compositional practices. In the first period (2004-06), Haddad aimed to achieve a synthesis of Arabic and Western music, without the usual Western gimmicks, i.e. tourism, exoticism or even 'abstraction.' His goal was true existential and transcendental integration, not a juxtaposition or imposition of one tradition on the other. In the latter period (2007-), the ever-questioning composer has been distancing himself from a direct, existential contact with Arabic culture."

Artist:	MENDOZA, ELENA
Title:	Scenes from Niebla
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6580

"This new disc from Wergo includes a selection of scenes from her music theater stage work Niebla based on the novel of the same title by the Spanish author Miguel de Unamuno. Fe de erratas pursues the idea of inventing a musico-theatrical situation by constantly correcting things just heard. Gramatica de lo indecible for instrumental ensemble was inspired by a saying by Wittgenstein that is interpolated into the composition at the end of the spoken material. Mendoza's works are a sonic and semantic kaleidoscope of extraordinary sensual presence."

Artist:	REICH, STEVE
Title:	Phase Patterns
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6630

"Contemporary recordings (1997-98) of these seminal live-instrument-hocket works, recorded by the Leipzig Ensemble Avant Garde (Michael Obst, Stefan Sopora, Klaus Steffes-Holländer, Josef Christof) under the direction of noted 20c repertoire pianist Stefen Schleiermacher. Any new recording of classic Reich is reason alone for rejoice; here we've not only gotten full-bandwidth recordings (and bang-up performances) of the under recorded (at least in the last 20 years or so) 'Piano Phase' (1966, for two pianos), 'Phase Patterns' (1970, for four electric organs) and 'Four Organs' (1970, for four electric organs and maracas) (with an average time of 17 minutes each), but THREE separate takes of 'Pendulum Music' (1968, for microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers and performers). Nifty new design for Wergo (w/fonts nicked out of the DR oeuvre) to boot. Completely necessary." --Hrvatski

Artist:	PENDERECKI, KRZYSZTOF
Title:	Seven Gates of Jerusalem- Symphony No. 7
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 6647

For five soloists, speakers, three mixed choirs and orchestra. Performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir Warsaw. "Krzysztof Penderecki first passed through the seven gates of Jerusalem in 1974 during an unofficial visit to Israel, which at the time was off limits owing to military conflicts with the Arabs. The Holy Land impressed the composer deeply, especially because he felt he was retracing Christ's steps. In 1995, Penderecki received a commission to compose a work for the celebration of the third millennium of Jerusalem. Penderecki, who had already composed five symphonies and planned out his sixth in concept, decided in favor of a new vocal work and chose for its theme and title Seven Gates of Jerusalem. It was premiered on January 9, 1997 in Jerusalem, and subtitled Symphony No. 7. The number seven has long fascinated Penderecki. For The Seven Gates he wrote seven movements. The main theme of each of the respective movements II and IV has seven different notes that serve as the motif for their passacaglia-like structures. Again and again, one finds in the score distinctly emphasized groups of seven notes, repeated on a single pitch. Finally, there are the seven powerful fortissimo chords that end the seventh and final movement. Wergo's CD is accompanied by lavish and extensive liner notes, including an essay by Wolfram Schwinger, biographies of the performers, and a full libretto. This world premiere recording was made during a live concert that took place in Vienna on November 16, 1999."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Credo In US... More Works For Percussion
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 6651

"Ten years after their first highly esteemed Cage CD Works for Percussion Quatuor Helios present a second with works by the inventor of the prepared piano. In the wake of this process comes the series of the five 'Imaginary Landscapes'. 'Credo in US' is another heroic work, particularly in the ambiguity of its title: is Cage patriotically referring to the United States, or is he simply humanistically proving allegiance to the first person plural? Collages, layerings and overlaps clash with omnipresent wild and scattered piano bits, strewn with explosions and streaked with silences that are in themselves aggressive. In 'Inlets', the performers let Nature do the composing. Quatuor Helios has always been open to collaboration with composers in order to develop new contemporary percussion languages, often associating 'classical' instruments, new technologies and musical theatre." Features: 2000 recordings of: "Credo In US" (1942, for piano, cans, buzzer and records), "Imaginary Landscape No.1" (1939, for piano, 2 oscillators and a Chinese cymbal), "Inlets" (1977, for three players of water-filled conch shells), "Imaginary Landscape No. 3" (1942, for coil, gongs, oscillators, tin cans, marimbula, buzzer), "But What About the Noise of Crumpling Paper Which He Used to Do in Order to Paint the Series of 'Papiers froissés' or Tearing Up Paper to Make 'Papiers déchirés?' Arp Was Stimulated by Water (Sea, Lake and Flowing Waters Like Rivers), Forests" (1986).

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Tierkreis, Zodiac
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6659

"As part of the celebration of Karlheinz Stockhausen's 75th birthday, Wergo is proud to release an exceptional new recording of Tierkreis and Zodiac, under the direction of Mike Svoboda. 'Zodiac' is one of Stockhausen's most beautiful and accessible compositions. He created several different arrangements, allowing each interpreter to create his or her own version by using special formulas. With regard to the first of his two realizations on this recording, Svoboda says,'I approached the composition the way jazz musicians approach a standard: take inspiration from the melody and harmonic sequences and then express themselves spontaneously and very individually.' In his second realization, Svoboda gave the musicians just a few structures and asked them to improvise freely on Stockhausen's melodies. These two versions of one of Stockhausen's most important works are a fitting tribute to this controversial master of contemporary composition."

Artist:	LUCIER, ALVIN
Title:	Nothing Is Real...
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 6660

Performed by Matthias Kaul (percussion, voice & piano), recorded 2001. "The focus of the pieces by composer Alvin Lucier on this Wergo CD is the phenomena of resonance -- sympathetic vibration -- in many variations. 'Time and again, I find myself having to pare away any musical gestures in a work in order to uncover the true idea in a piece,' says Lucier. The composer knows which ideas he wants to liberate. But the process of causing the environment to resound is always a collaborative, interactive project. It needs someone who is creatively engaged, even obsessed, to make Lucier's music of ideas a music of the ears. Percussionist Matthias Kaul is just such a person, and this new disc, Nothing Is Real..., will open up many ears to Lucier's compositional brilliance."

Artist:	NANCARROW, CONLON
Title:	Studies and Solos for Piano
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 6670

Composer: Conlon Nancarrow; Performed by the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo. Features mostly early works: "Studiies for Player Piano (1949-60), "Three Canons for Ursula" (1988), "Tango?" (1984), "Three Two-Part Studies" (1940s), "Prelude" (1935), "Blues" (1935), "Sonatina" (1945). "The Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo -- plays works by Conlon Nancarrow, one of the most unusual and yet most influential American composers in the history of twentieth century music. In addition to works originally written for piano two-hands there are transcriptions for piano four-hands of works written for two hands, as well as eleven 'Studies for Player Piano' transcribed for piano four-hands on this wonderful CD. It turned to be a magical event to listen to these sometimes romantic or jazzy, abrupt or wild, but always deeply original pieces full of wit and surprises. [...] The two ladies understood it perfectly, to bring the mechanical element to light but with incredible charm and a furioso technique."

Artist:	SCELSI, GIACINTO
Title:	Suono Rotundo
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 6672

"Scelsi would have celebrated his 100th birthday in January 2005. This disc is an homage to the great composer, and brings us closer to understanding his art by taking up his principles of self-effacing improvisation and dressing them up in individual clothing. It is a living homage in the sense that it tries to get close to Scelsi, but only to play freely in a very personal way. The three well-wishers are Michael Kiedaisch (percussion), Stefano Scodanibbio (double bass) and Michael Svoboda (trombone). Mike Svoboda remarks, 'The improvisations should sound like composed music, with well-rounded form, a clear concept and balance. We played an improvisation, and then we pursued a promising idea.'"

Artist:	RILEY, TERRY/ SCODANIBBIO, STEFANO
Title:	Diamond Fiddle Language
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 6675

"On this CD, the European avant-garde meets American minimalism; an 18th-century double bass teams up with a 21st-century synthesizer; jazz and Indian raga and extended techniques are inextricably linked. Recorded over a period of a year and a half in three separate locations around the globe, this album highlights two musician-composers and distills their concertizing, touring, and refining the intricacies of their collaboration. Terry Riley and Stefano Scodanibbio have mastered their instruments to the point of transcending them, so that it would be simplistic to define their work together as duets for contrabass and keyboards. Each of them coaxes such a complex range of timbres and hues and textures from their instruments that it's hard to believe such a variety of sounds is created by only two men. Much connects Terry Riley and Stefano Scodanibbio: both are equally comfortable with improvisation and classical notated music; both enjoy the exploration of tuning systems, harmonics, and the world of overtones, and use them to create new worlds of sounds. Together they take us beyond our perceptions of instrumental boundaries." Recorded 1998-2000, Riley sings the words of Pandi Pran Nath on one track.

Artist:	BERIO, LUCIANO
Title:	Canticum novissimi testamenti, A-ronne
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 6678

"The mutual passion they shared for the sound of language was the basis for the long and fruitful collaboration between writer Edoardo Sanguineti and composer Luciano Berio. Sanguineti was the leader of the Italian avant-garde movement of the 1960s and formerly, a Communist senator in the Italian parliament. He remains one of Italy's most respected thinkers, teaching literature at the University of Genoa. Sanguineti considers Berio's Canticum novissimi testamenti and A-Ronne to be the most successful musical settings of his texts. In his obituary for his friend, Sanguineti wrote in 2003: 'For me he embodies purely and simply how music can be planned and thought today.' A-Ronne begins with the biblical assertion that the word stood at the beginning of all things and concludes with the line 'in the end is my music.' In Canticum novissimi testamenti Berio traces the subtle nuances and shifting moods of the poem with elegantly homogeneous sound from eight singers and eight winds."

Artist:	BUCHHOLZ/LYDIA KAVINA, BARBARA
Title:	Touch! Don't Touch! Music For Theremin
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6679

New recordings from 2005, featuring premiers of various compositions for Theremin. performed by the world renowned Lydia Kavina & Barbara Buchholz. "The Theremin, invented by Russian Leon Theremin, is one of the earliest fully electronic musical instruments. It is unusual in that it requires no physical contact in order to produce music and was, in fact, the first musical instrument designed to be played without being touched. The instrument consists of an array of circuitry including two antennas around which the user moves his or her hands to play. After a flurry of interest in America following the end of the Second World War, the Theremin soon fell into disuse with serious musicians, mainly because newer electronic instruments were introduced that were easier to play. Since the release of the film Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey in 1994, the instrument has enjoyed a resurgence in interest and has become more widely used by contemporary classical and popular musicians. On Touch! Don't Touch! Barbara Buchholz and Lydia Kavina pick up the thread of Theremin history with new compositions. The disc features works by eight German and Russian composers who were commissioned to write pieces for two Theremins and instrumental ensemble."

Artist:	GUBAIDULINA, SOFIA
Title:	Am Rande des Abgrunds/De Profundis/Quaternion/In Croce
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6684

"To celebrate Sofia Gubaidulina's 75th birthday, Wergo ofers this new CD of the composer's chamber music. Joining Julius Berger and Stefan Hussong, two well-known interpreters of new music, are Sofia Gubaidulina and her colleague, Viktor Suslin. In Am Rande des Abgrunds Gubaidulina and Suslin play aquaphones -- instruments which resemble water-filled censers with strange decorations. Their sound is rich in overtones and quite unusual, and contrasts sharply with the shimmering sound of the strings. These unusual instruments are an expression of the composer's eagerness to experiment, actively and consciously grappling with the sound worlds of the cultures of Africa and East Asia."

Artist:	SCELSI, GIACINTO
Title:	Canti Del Capricorno
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6686

Performed by Michiko Hirayama (voice), Ulrich Krieger (saxophone), Mathias Bauer (double bass), Jürgen Grözinger (percussion), Roland Neff e (percussion). "Michiko Hirayama was the sole inspiration for Scelsi's twenty-part cycle Canti del Capricorno, written between 1962 and 1972. To this day the Japanese singer is a unique performer of this spiritual yet energy-filled work for solo voice, with instrumental accompaniment for certain songs: This is Hirayama's second recording of the work for Wergo and is the first of the complete version. Accompanied by Jürgen Grözinger and his ensemble, Hirayama claims, at age 82, to have found the 'right' path of interpretation."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Solo For 'Cello
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 6693

"The works for violoncello solo recorded and compiled on this CD by Friedrich Gauwerky are reference works for John Cage's unusual way of composing. Apart from the tones, Cage also helped to put the varied forms of silence on the musical map. '59 1/2 Seconds,' one of his time-length pieces, ranks among Cage's most radical 'graphic' compositions. Stars become notes or noises in 'Atlas Eclipticalis' -- again without a score. 'Variations I,' written for any number of people using any sort and number of sound-producing means, Cage's composition reached the outmost limit on the way to absolute indetermination. But, if one hears 'Etudes Boréales' for cello solo, however, one experiences that it is a piece whose status can only be compared with J.S. Bach's cello compositions."

Artist:	PICKER, TOBIAS
Title:	Keys To The City: Works For Piano
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6695

Performed by Ursula Oppens (piano). "New York City native Tobias Picker was described by the Wall Street Journal as, 'our finest composer for the lyric stage' and by BBC Music Magazine as 'displaying a distinctively soulful style that is one of the glories of the current musical scene.' This Wergo recording with pianist Ursula Oppens traces an evolution in the composer's writing for piano from the virtuosic challenges of his 'Four Etudes For Ursula' and the jazzy, urbane landscape of 'Keys To The City' to the lyrical simplicity of 'Old And Lost Rivers' or 'The Blue Hula.' Listeners will also have a rare opportunity to hear the composer performing in the two piano versions of 'Keys To The City.' This disc features mostly first recordings and is an invaluable contribution to the discography of contemporary American music."

Artist:	NANCARROW, CONLON
Title:	Quartets and Studies - Arditti Quartet
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6696CD

Performed by Arditti Quartet, 2005 recordings. "Conlon Nancarrow (b. 1912) is undoubtedly one of the most original figures in American music. In the late 1940s, he turned to the instrument with which his name later became synonymous: the player piano. But Nancarrow also wrote a number of compositions for conventional instruments, which are likewise concerned with the organization of musical time and which in technical terms are among the most difficult works in modern literature. This repertoire is tailor-made for the enterprising Arditti Quartet, heard here in a propulsive reading of the 'String Quartets' Nos. 1 and 3 (1942; 1987). As a further attraction, this is the first recording of the string arrangements of the 'Studies for Player Piano' Nos. 15, 31, 33 and 34 (originally composed between 1955 and 1969) and of the 'Trilogy for Player Piano' dating from 1987."

Artist:	ZIMMERMANN, BERND ALOIS
Title:	Die Soldaten
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$48.00
Catalog #:	WER 6698

"Wergo's original-cast recording of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's opera Die Soldaten (premiered 1965, Cologne) was a signal event of the analog era. With the reissue of this legendary recording on CD, we can re-live the birth of a path setting masterpiece of 20th century music. The completely new perspective on the possibilities of musical theater manifested by Zimmermann, who extended the unifying ideas of serialism as far as the scenic and spatial aspects of the piece, have given the work a level of vitality and endurance matched by only a few other operas from the same half-century. In spite of its immense performance difficulties, the work went on to conquer opera stages not only throughout Germany but also around the world." Includes a 196-page booklet.

Artist:	FELDMAN, MORTON
Title:	For Philip Guston
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	4CD
Price:	$64.00
Catalog #:	WER 6701CD

Performed by Julia Breuer (flutes), Matthias Engler (vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, tubular bells), Elmar Schrammel (piano, celesta). Recorded 2007. One of Feldman's classic long-term late works, written in 1984. "Wergo is proud to present Morton Feldman's four-hour-long trio For Philip Guston, performed by the ensemble Breuer-Engler-Schrammel. Feldman disagreed with those who regarded his works since the 1970s as being too long. 'In music, it's very difficult to distinguish between a thing's proportions and its form,' he wrote. 'My pieces aren't too long -- they seem to fit the temporal landscape I provide. Would you say that 'The Odyssey' is too long?' Feldman wrote this gossamer work in memory of his best friend of more than 20 years, the Canadian-born painter Philip Guston (1913-1980). The initial motive, C-G-A-fl at-E-fl at, refers to John Cage, who had introduced the two men to each other in 1950, and the sound world evokes the methods used by Guston and other Abstract Expressionists in their art."

Artist:	VASKS, PETERIS
Title:	Viatore
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6705

Performed by Normunds ?nē (English horn) & the Sinfonietta Riga. "Peteris Vasks' early style owed much to the aleatoric experiments of Lutoslawski, Penderecki and Crumb. Later works include elements of Latvian folk music, such as his gentle and pastoral English horn 'Concerto of 1989' and the powerful 'Viatore' for string orchestra. Currently living in Riga as a freelance composer, Vasks feels strongly about environmental issues and a sense of nature -- both pristine and destroyed -- can be found in many of his works. This disc features a sampling of his instrumental music, played by Normunds ?nē and the Sinfonietta Riga."

Artist:	CAGE/HANS OTTE, JOHN
Title:	Orient/Occident
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6706

Performed by Philipp Vandré and Elmar Schrammel. Recorded 2006. "For this 'Orient / Occident' program, a selection of John Cage's ground-breaking Sonatas & Interludes (Nos. 2, 3, 5-8, 11, 16) for prepared piano was interwoven with selections from Hans Otte's piano cycles Das Buch der Klänge (The Book of Sounds) and Stundenbuch (The Book of Hours). This concert experiment paid quiet homage to the 'beautiful piano sound' also found in 20th-century music, within which Oriental (Cage) and Occidental (Otte) worlds of thought find their way to contrasting commonalities. This generously-filled live recording captures the 2006 piano recital given by Philipp Vandré and Elmar Schrammel in Stuttgart in honor of the composer Hans Otte's 80th birthday." Includes a 30-page booklet.

Artist:	VARESE/MORTON FELDMAN, EDGARD
Title:	Amériques/Piece For Four Pianos - Five Pianos
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6708

Performed by Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo & Friends. "Amériques -- a symbol of renewal, adventure, and discovery -- is a symphonic eruption that earned a place in the twentieth century's list of famous scandals at its premiere. The version on this CD for two pianos, eight hands featuring the Bugallo-Williams Duo introduces the musical world to a work of extreme pianistic virtuosity, both delicate and ecstatic, a work whose wild activity could not be more different from the almost motionless introspection of the Feldman pieces. As Feldman said, 'Instead of inventing a system like Schoenberg, Varèse invented a music that speaks to us with its incredible tenacity rather than its methodology. When listening to Varèse, we ask ourselves, 'How did he do it?' and not 'How was it done?''"

Artist:	KAMMER, SALOME
Title:	Salomix-max
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6709

Sub-titled: In Memorium Cathy Berberian. Featuring works by Berio, Mozart, Berg, Arlen, Spring, Weill, etc. "Not unlike her musical inspiration, the great Cathy Berberian, Salome Kammer is an artist who exploits the entire spectrum of the human voice. She moves between styles of singing with the ease of an actress changing roles. Sometimes she is a jazz singer, sometimes an opera diva. In her performances of experimental compositions, she can explore unplumbed depths. This disc features a selection of works in varied styles that not only salutes Kammer's mentor, but also shows her to be a fascinating and talented artist in her own right."

Artist:	HENZE, HANS WERNER
Title:	El Cimarrón
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$48.00
Catalog #:	WER 6710

Performed by El Cimarrón Ensemble, under the direction of Michael Kerstan. Recorded 2005. "El Cimarrón (1970) is a milestone of politically-engaged music theater, and a key event in Hans Werner Henze's career. In this 'recital for four musicians,' the composer tells the story of Esteban Montejo (sung here by bass-baritone Angelo De Leonardis) -- an escaped Cuban slave who, at the remarkable age of 104, was interviewed extensively about his life (and taped) by the Cuban ethnologist Miguel Barnet. A German-language libretto by Hans Magnus Enzensberger was translated into English by Christopher Keene and is heard in this version. Henze's composition incorporates echoes of Montejo's speaking style -- observed by the composer during their 1969 encounter. The score includes free improvisation as well as aleatoric components and composed fields, in which pitches and sounds are specified but the tempi and dynamics are determined by the performers. Henze also makes effective use of popular forms such as the habanera. Writing about a 1999 performance by the El Cimarrón Ensemble, the composer praised the chamber group's 'energy, artistic brio, and personal commitment ... In Michael Kerstan's staging, this performance becomes a highly impressive, touching, and captivating action.'"

Artist:	VASKS, PETERIS
Title:	Cantus Ad Pacem
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6712

"This CD is the first to be devoted exclusively to the organ music of the Latvian composer Peteris Vasks. With the exception of the 'Te Deum' (recorded in St. Gertrude in Riga), all of the works were recorded on the magnificent organ of the cathedral in Riga. Here, over the course of the past 20 years, Talivaldis Deksnis, since 1984 one of the principal organists of this venerable house of worship, has performed all of Vasks' works for organ, many of them for the first time. Besides original compositions for organ, this CD also includes two adaptations of works for string orchestra, 'Viatore' and 'Canto Di Forza,' both dedicated to Talivaldis Deksnis, with whom Vasks has maintained a lifelong friendship."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Dream
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6713

"John Cage had a particular predilection for poetry. 'Poetry,' he wrote, 'is not poetry by reason of its content or ambiguity, but by reason of its allowing musical elements (time, sound) to be introduced into the world of words.' And the composer said about Stefano Scodanibbio, who transcribed the 'Freeman Etudes' and 'Dream' for contrabass and in this recording also serves as the conductor of 'Concert for Piano and Orchestra' and 'Radio Music,' 'I haven't heard better double bass playing than Scodanibbio's. He's really extraordinary... absolutely magic.'"

Artist:	YUN, ISANG
Title:	Concertino, Duo, Intermezzo, Pezzo Fantasioso
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6716

"There is a touch of the exotic in the music of Korean composer Isang Yun, rooted as it is in a fusion between Asian and European musical cultures. Although Yun is best known as a composer of orchestral works and operas, almost fifty chamber music works occupy a central position in his oeuvre. In addition to traditional genres such as the string quartet, he experimented with unusual combinations. His affinity for the accordion, whose capability for sound modulation strongly attracted the composer, is the focus of this disc, which feature the prodigious talents of accordionist Stefan Hussong."

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Kontra-punkte, Refrain, Zeitmasze, Schlagtrio
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6717

Performed by The Ensemble Recherche. "The four works on this disc come from the first nine years of a compositional career that would span almost another half century. Yet today, one scarcely hears them as 'early Stockhausen,' but rather as a series of essential cornerstones of the emerging post-war European avant-garde on which Stockhausen, as the youngest major composer involved, exercised a crucial influence. What should strike is not what these pieces have in common, but how different they are from one another. Each exemplifies a phase of Stockhausen's early development. The Ensemble Recherche is one of the most distinguished ensembles for new music. With more than 450 premieres to its credit since it was founded in 1985, the ensemble has made a substantial contribution to the development of contemporary chamber and ensemble music."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Etudes Boreales/Harmonies/10'40.3''
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6718

Friedrich Gauwerky - cello, Mark Knoop - piano. "The enormous technical challenges presented by Cage's Etudes Boreales demand careful coordination of fingers, instrument and intellect. On this CD, the work is presented twice, in versions for piano solo and for cello and piano. As in its sister works, Etudes Australes and Freeman Etudes, Cage based his composition on a star chart, in this case, one of the northern sky created by Czech astronomer Antonín Becvár in 1962. Apartment House 1776 for four singers and any number of instrumentalists was written for the American bicentennial. It consists of 14 Tunes, 4 Marches, 2 Imitations and 44 Harmonies. On this disc, Friedrich Gauwerky plays his own arrangements for cello and piano of four of the Harmonies."

Artist:	CZERNOWIN, CHAYA
Title:	Shifting Gravity
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6726

"Wergo presents first recordings of chamber music works by the Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin. The eponymous series of works, Shifting Gravity, from 2008 connects the string quartets 'Anea Christal' with the compositions 'Sheva' and 'Sahaf.' The second part of the CD consists of the 'Winter Songs III' (2003). This Wergo production shows a different side of the artist who was born in Haifa in 1957 and who, up to now, has been appreciated mainly for her stage works, in particular for the much noticed music theatre play Pnima/Ins Innere or her adaptation of Mozart's 'Zaide/Adama.' The instrumental works were all created after the music-theatre plays, associating notions like paralysis, adherence, proliferation."

Artist:	RZEWSKI, FREDERIC
Title:	The People United Will Never Be Defeated
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6730

"On this new CD, Kai Schumacher performs Frederic Rzewski's work The People United Will Never Be Defeated, a work based on the Chilean protest song, '¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!,' written by Sergio Ortega a few months before Pinochet's military coup in September of 1973. 'A masterpiece,' says composer Bernhard Wambach. 'It is a work that would be unthinkable without Bach, but also without Stockhausen, Boulez and Cage. Whoever wishes to interpret this work has not only to master a text of the highest pianistic difficulty, but must also 'take a position.' The pianist must embody a political perspective. Without such a 'position,' it is impossible to interpret this work of a committed socialist.'

Artist:	NANCARROW, CONLON
Title:	As Fast As Possible
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6733

"American composer Conlon Nancarrow is best known for the groundbreaking compositions he wrote for player piano. Nancarrow was one of the first composers to use musical instruments as mechanical machines, making them play far beyond human performance ability. His central works in this new genre were the Studies for Player Piano, written between 1948 and 1992. Nancarrow's 'live' instrumental compositions can be classified in three groups, piano, chamber and orchestral. Each of those genres is represented on this new disc. The composer's late creative period is characterized by transcriptions of both his own works and works by other composers. Paul Usher's Nancarrow Concerto is a shining example of the ongoing creative development of Nancarrow's music."

Artist:	ZIMMERMANN, BERND ALOIS
Title:	Initiale - Lieder and Early Chamber Music
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6735

"This CD is the first recording of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's complete vocal works. His eleven songs are interpreted here by renowned singer Anna Prohaska, who captivates the opera world with her light and lyric soprano voice. Never had Zimmermann been as close to the neo-romantic tonal language as he was in his songs. They reflect both an expression of intimate feelings and his strong interest in literature. The CD also contains his early chamber music. Members of the Berlin Philharmonic, including the Trio Berlin, present his Trio, Kleine Suite and Aria and Sonate."

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Tierkreis/Zodiac
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6736

"This recording of Stockhausen's Tierkreis (Zodiac) features the composer's version for organ. Originally composed for musical boxes, the work is played here by Dominik Susteck, organist at St. Peter's in Cologne. The recording features an unusual instrument. Since the 1980s, this Catholic chapel has strived to connect the church with contemporary art. Its organ, built by Willy Peter, was designed for contemporary music. The four-manual great organ and the three-manual choir organ has 104 stops, including such unusual sound additions as siren, saxophone and percussion orchestra. Susteck describes his interpretation of Stockhausen's work as, 'a frozen musical movement. The instrument no longer sounds like an organ but proves to be a colorful, agile and dynamic being.'"

Artist:	LACHENMANN, HELMUT
Title:	Accanto, Consolation I, Kontrakadenz
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6738

"On the occasion of Helmut Lachenmann's 75th birthday, Wergo presents a re-release of the reference recordings of his works Accanto, Consolation I and Kontrakadenz. 'Here we must depart from a conception that only accepts the "showy" side of sound, usually promoted as a medium for a certain kind of spurious social ostentation,' the conductor Clytus Gottwald wrote about Lachenmann's 'sound realism.' Lachenmann creates, 'music that removes the false aspects of sounds by returning sound to its natural realm.'"

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Etudes Australes
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	4CD
Price:	$64.00
Catalog #:	WER 6740

"John Cage's Etudes Australes, performed here by pianist Sabine Liebner, launched a series of virtuoso studies born out of the composer's renewed interest in traditional instrumentation and notation. This complex work consists of a total of 32 etudes divided into four books, which John Cage based on maps of the southern night sky. From these maps, locations of planets were selected via chance and translated into pitches, transforming indeterminacy into a new aesthetic category. For Cage's Etudes Australes, the moment of performance is its only moment of reality. Only what is in the present can be heard: in this case, a constantly changing kaleidoscope of sound."

Artist:	HOSOKAWA, TOSHIO
Title:	Deep Silence
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6801

"'Music,' says Toshio Hosokawa, 'is the place where notes and silence meet.' This identifies his aesthetic concept as a genuinely Japanese one. It is found both in Japanese landscape painting and is the music, such as the courtly gagaku, in which audible sound always stands in relation to nonsound, i.e. to silence. In their rhythmic proportions Hosokawa's compositions are oriented around the breathing methods of Zen meditation, with their very slow breathing in and very slow breathing out: 'Each breath contains life and death, death and life.' Mayumi Miyata (sho -- the instrument of the universe or of tradition) and Stefan Hussong (accordion - the human or contemporary instrument) are among the most important interpreters of Hosokawa's music which here is framed by four traditional gagaku pieces."

Artist:	SATIE/MIKE SVOBODA, ERIK
Title:	Phonométrie
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6806

"The output of Erik Satie (1866-1925), when placed alongside that of his contemporaries, can seem rather meager. His popular 'Gymnopidies' (1888) are beguiling, but as compositions, they are no match for the works of a 'colleague' like Claude Debussy. Satie's disinterest in compositional technique clearly sets his music apart and lends it an unmistakable 'low-tech' charm. Ex-Chicagoan Mike Svoboda decided to revisit Satie's fascination with the phenomenology of sound ('phonometrics') and with the limitations of musical form and performance practice. For this intriguing and well-filled program, he cleverly arranged some of Satie's miniatures -- 'Gnossienne No. I' (1890), 'Sports et Divertissements' (1914), 'Ludions' (1923) -- and juxtaposed them with his original compositions created in the spirit of the visionary Parisian 'phonometrist' and forerunner of John Cage."

Artist:	STRAVINSKY/GEORGE CRUMB, IGOR
Title:	Mythical Dances
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6807

Performed by the Belli Piano Duo. "With Mythical Dances -- a recital devoted to two of the most important and challenging works for piano four hands -- Wergo presents the recording debut of the Belli Piano Duo. For the second of four volumes which make up George Crumb's 'Mahrokosmos.' Enrico and Olivia Belli juxtapose the music of this American composer (b. 1929) with that of a predecessor who has influenced him most profoundly. Given that 'Makrokosmos IV' was both conceived and written for piano duet, it made perfect sense to couple it with Igor Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring.' The composer's original version for piano duet heard here saw its 1912 Paris premiere when he partnered with no less a figure than Claude Debussy."

Artist:	MUSIKFABRIK
Title:	Vom Himmel Zur Hölle (From Heaven To Hell)
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6853

"This new collection from MusikFabrik focuses on three composers' imaginings of music from heaven or hell. In the Old Testament, the musical praise of God was imagined as an overpowering roar, a concept depicted in Martin Smolka's 'Rush (Hour in Celestial Streets).' Mauricio Kagel's 'Orchestrion-Straat' celebrates a joyous earthly resurrection while Louis Andriessen's 'Racconto dall'Inferno' ('Tale From Hell') proposes that hell has a soundtrack, and anyone caught in its repetitive loops will find it difficult to escape."

Artist:	MUSIKFABRIK
Title:	Schattenspiele (Shadow Games)
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6854

"This CD takes us on a foray into the land of shadows -- its compositions make remarkable use of light and shadow effects while simultaneously recalibrating the relationship between ensemble and soloist in unique ways. Michael Jarrell's violin concerto refracts the solo instrument's line through the prism of the ensemble. Stefano Gervasoni's concerto for double bass is like a dream full of odd sound forms -- until the alarm goes off. Taking an (early-morning) look in the mirror, the solo flute in Durand's Ombre/Miroir finds itself still faced with shadowy creatures as well. In Brian Ferneyhough's Shadowtime VI, the angel of history appears and in verses by poet Charles Bernstein, he shows his gloomy face."

Artist:	MUSIKFABRIK
Title:	Krönung (Coronation)
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6855

"Wergo's focus with this new CD entitled Coronation is not on blue blood or kingly power, but in organic processes -- the music on this CD sends up its shoots and produces blossoms like crowns. '(co)ro(na),' by Vykintas Baltakas, springs from a cascade of motivic branchings, its roots in a cycle of works named after the alchemical Ouroboros, a snake that swallows its own tail. Its dragon's blood, so the legends say, is cinnabar red, like the hue that shines in 'Cinnabar' by Rebecca Saunders. Magnus Lindberg's 'Joy' expresses itself through its profligacy with spectral harmonies and the resonant snapping of the strings of a demolished piano. 'Thalleïn' by Iannis Xenakis creates sieves that proliferate until they transform into archaic dances, refulgent with the brass tones."

Artist:	MUSIKFABRIK
Title:	Nach Innen (Toward The Inside)
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6856

"A tendency to focus on internal processes has emerged in the music of the last few decades. This disc features compositions on that theme by Mark Andre, Kaija Saariaho and Ian Willcock. Andre was seeking existential sonic situations on his path 'toward the inside' (or nach innen, to quote the written out title of his piece 'ni'). Like Andre, Saariaho has also delved into the internal nature of sound. Her rich variety of spectral harmonies tells an old story in a new way: a violin concerto that portrays the legend of the grail. Willcock's piece visits the discoverer of the unconscious, Sigmund Freud, on his deathbed. Freud's glimpses of the 'inside' showed that sometimes there is more to be found there than the truth."

Artist:	MUSIKFABRIK
Title:	Unerwartet (Unexpected)
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6857

"Unexpected events rupture continuity; they occur suddenly and they create a moment, a now, in which the flow of history dissolves into 'suddenness.' The question posed by David Lang in the title of his melodrama Are you experienced? is rhetorical in nature, given that the piece takes a speculative look at the unexpected end of a concert evening. Philippe Boesmans, best known as a composer of operas, surprises us with a Biedermeier sextet. For Richard Barrett, interference becomes a structural principle, and Luca Francesconi knows the formula for driving the formulaic out of music."

Artist:	NANCARROW, CONLON
Title:	Studies for Player Piano Vol. 1-5 (complete)
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	5CD
Price:	$73.00
Catalog #:	WER 6907

"This set brings together all five volumes of Nancarrow's prize-winning player piano recordings in one deluxe, slipcase package. With their dazzling acrobatic complexities, well beyond the technique of any human, Nancarrow's works are both amazingly beautiful and strangely unsettling. Wergo's recordings were made in 1988 at Conlon Nancarrow's Mexico City studio, using the composer's own custom-altered Ampico reproducing piano. The 140-page booklet includes numerous unpublished photographs, an essay by producer Charles Amirkhanian and a probing musical analysis by James Tenney." This set replaced the now deleted individuals sets that were previously issued by Wergo (60165, 60166, 6168). Priced as 5 CDs for the cost of 3 (in Wergo terms), so a bit more attractive than the original versions in that sense.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series Vol. 1
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	3CD
Price:	$48.00
Catalog #:	WER 6928

Featuring The Manhattan Percussion Ensemble, John Cage (conductor), Paul Price (conductor), Christoph Caskel (percussion), David Tudor (piano), Aloys Kontarsky (piano), Bernhard Kontarsky (celesta), MEV (Ala Bryant, Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzewski, Richard Teitelbaum & Ivan Vandor), AMM (Cornelius Cardew, Lou Gare, Christopher Hobbs, Eddie Prevost & Keith Rowe). "Wergo's Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series focuses on the extraordinary world of contemporary and avant-garde music that flourished in Europe, the United States, Latin America and Japan in the 1960s and early 1970s. Recorded between 1960 and 1973, the original eighteen LPs that comprise this series have been highly sought after in the secondary market since 1978 when they were discontinued. These rare and historically important recordings of international avant-garde music have been carefully digitized and remastered by the Earle Brown Music Foundation. Brown was a major force in the world of contemporary classical music. He studied mathematics and engineering at Norteastern University, and attended the Schillinger House School of Music for techniques of composition and orchestration. His work with new notations, scoring methods and performance attitudes led to his development of graphic, improvisational and 'open-form' scores. Wergo will release six 3CD sets of these recordings between now and 2011. Each set will contain three CDs in jewel boxes including the original liner notes and cover art."
       CD1: Concert Percussion For Orchestra - Roldan, Harrison, Russell, Cowell, Cage.
       CD2: Stockhausen - Kagel
       CD3: Live Electronic Music Improvised - MEV, AMM.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series Vol. 2
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	3CD
Price:	$48.00
Catalog #:	WER 6931

"Recorded between 1960 and 1973, the original eighteen LPs that comprise Earle Brown's legendary Contemporary Sound Series have been highly sought after in the secondary market since 1978 when they were discontinued. These rare and historically important recordings of international avant-garde music have been carefully digitized and remastered by the Earle Brown Music Foundation. Volume two includes music by Luigi Nono (Polifonica - Monodia - Ritmica), Bruno Maderna (Serenata No. 2), Luciano Berio (Différences) Peter Maxwell Davies (Antechrist) Harrison Birtwistle (Ring a Dumb Carillon) David Bedford (Come In Here Child), Richard Orton (Cycle for 2 or 4 Players), Morton Feldman: (Durations I-IV) and Earle Brown (Music for Violin, Cello and Piano, Music for Cello and Piano, and Hodograph I)."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series Vol. 3
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	3CD
Price:	$48.00
Catalog #:	WER 6934

"Wergo presents the third volume of the Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series. Recorded between 1960 and 1973, the original LPs from which these CDs were taken have long been collector's items. These rare and historically important recordings of international avantgarde music have been carefully digitized and remastered by the Earle Brown Music Foundation. The series presents the extraordinary world of contemporary and avant-garde music that fl ourished in Europe, the United States, Latin America and Japan in the 1960s and early 1970s. This set includes works by Luciano Berio, John Cage and Toshiro Mayuzumi, and features the great singer Cathy Berberian. Each set in the series contains three CDs in jewel boxes with the original liner notes and covers." Featured works: Luciano Berio's Circles, John Cage's Aria with Fontana Mix, Toshiro Mayazumi's Nirvana Symphony, Iannis Xenakis' Herma and Roger Reynolds' Fantasy For Pianist and Yuji Takahashi's Metathesis.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series Vol. 4
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	3CD
Price:	$48.00
Catalog #:	WER 6937

"Wergo's reissues of the legendary Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series have been a big hit with fans of contemporary music around the world. Each set is a treasure-trove of works by a wide range of composers, performed by some of the finest musicians of the time. The three CDs of volume four feature string quartets by Boulez, Scelsi and Earle Brown, works for chamber orchestra by Xenakis, Aldo Clementi, Bo Nilsson, Wlodzimierz Kotonski and Yuji Takahashi and works by Milko Kelemen, Niccolo Castiglioni, Vittorio Fellegara and Isang Yun that were originally premiered by the Hamburger Kammersolisten."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series Vol. 5
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	3CD
Price:	$48.00
Catalog #:	WER 6940

"With Earle Brown -- A Life in Music -- Volume 5, Wergo has once again dug up treasures of contemporary music from the 1960s and 1970s. The 3-CD set not only contains one of the first recordings of Charles Ives's 'Concord Sonata by Aloys Kontarsky but is also a testimony to the virtuosity of Severino Gazzelloni who is, without doubt, one of the greatest flutists of the 20th century. In addition, it contains music from the group Sonic Arts Union with the four pioneers of electronic music: David Behrman, Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma. The 18 LPs of Earle Brown's legendary Contemporary Sound Series, recorded between 1960 and 1973, have become a rarity in great demand since the series was discontinued in 1978. These rare and historically important recordings have been carefully digitized and re-mastered by the Earle Brown Music Foundation." Also features works by Franco Evangelisti, Niccolo Catiglioni, Luciano Berio, Olivier Messiaen and Yoritsune Matsudaira.

Artist:	VA
Title:	50 Years
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	5CD
Price:	$48.00
Catalog #:	WER 6946

"In 2012, the Wergo label celebrates its 50th anniversary. For half a century, Wergo has been synonymous with contemporary music. The label's catalog reads like a virtual who's-who of modern music, both in terms of composers and performers. From the beginning, the intent of founder Werner Goldschmidt (from whom the label derives its name) was to provide listeners with a snapshot of current musical activity and innovation. Goldschmidt's label and mission, now managed by the publisher Schott, is maintained to this day by a dedicated staff that is constantly striving to bring the best new music to the attention of the world. This specially-priced commemorative set features five discs, with one from each from the label's five rich decades. Featured composers include Cage, Nono, Schnebel Stockhausen and Stravinsky."

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Artist:	SUBOTNICK, MORTON
Title:	Silver Apples Of the Moon
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 2035

Artist:	XENAKIS, IANNIS
Title:	Palimpsest/Epei/Dikhthas/Akanthos
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 6178

Artist:	SATIE/JOHN CAGE, ERIK
Title:	Socrote/Cheap Imitation
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6186