Browse by Artist: STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Zyklus, Kontakte, Klavierstücke V & IX
Label:	CAPRICE (SWEDEN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	CAP 21642CD

2000 release. Performed by Jonny Axelsson, percussion; Frederick Ullen, piano. Featured works: Zyklus ("The piece is composed as a cycle of seventeen periods, characterized by nine dominant timbral groups: marimba-glissandi, guiro, tam-tam/gong, vibraphone, cowbells, triangle, high-hat, snare drum and tom-toms. Each group reaches a climax, and thereafter slowly disappears."); Kontakte ("Stockhausen worked on Kontakte for piano, percussion and 4-track tape, for more than two years (1958-60) at the West German Radio's electroacoustic studio in Cologne. The tape part can also be played by itself as a separate composition, which on its own can be seen as one of the greatest technical and artistic triumphs of early electroacoustic music"); Klavierstücke V and Klavierstücke IX.

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Mantra
Label:	DOXY (ITALY)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$32.00
Catalog #:	DOZ 408LP

"Composed in 1970, Stockhausen's Mantra is a duet for piano written for the Donaueschingen Festival. It is Stockhausen's first completely scored piece after a long string of largely improvised compositions. Here both pianists play ring-modulated pianos, cymbals, and a wood block. One player is also controlling a recording of Morse code. The purpose of this composition was to explore the idea of a musical 'mantra.' The repetition of sounds are intended to place both the audience and the musicians themselves into an altered state of consciousness, thus changing the concert performance into an interactive event where the composer and listener are equals." Limited, numbered edition of 500 copies on 180 gram vinyl.

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Kontakte
Label:	DOXY (ITALY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$23.00
Catalog #:	DOZ 414LP

"Kontakte (1959-60), Stockhausen's first piece to use both electronics and traditional instruments together, marks a turning point in his career, when his music was beginning to show the influences of American avant-garde jazz and composers like John Cage. In Kontakte live musicians play alongside a tape recording of percussion sounds that have been altered by different electronic devices (i.e. a ring modulator or a reverberator). Stockhausen wanted the musicians to improvise over the prepared tape, but the musicians were at such a loss that Stockhausen eventually had to score the instrumental parts as well." Performed by Christoph Caskel, David Tudor, Gottfried Michael Koenig and Stockhausen in Köln, 1960.

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Studie I & II/Gesang Der Jünglinge
Label:	DOXY (ITALY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$23.00
Catalog #:	DOZ 415LP

Studie I (1953), Studie II (1954), Gesang Der Jünglinge (1956) and Zyklus für zwei Schlagzeugern (1960). Performed by David Tudor, Christoph Caskel, Gottfried Michael Koenig and Stockhausen. "A collection of Stockhausen' s most important works from the 1950s, particularly Gesang der Junglinge ('Song of the Youths') 1955-56, probably the most iconic piece of electronic music ever written. Only because of Stockhausen's complete understanding of electronic equipment, along with his creative genius, was he able to produce this masterwork, the first piece of music to unify vocals and electronics."

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Beton-Studie/Zeitmass Für Fünf Holzbläser/Klavierstuck XI
Label:	DOXY (ITALY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$23.00
Catalog #:	DOZ 416LP

"A collection of some of Karlheinz Stockhausen's earliest work, including his earliest piece of musique concrete Beton-Studie (aka 'Etude') written by Stockhausen in 1952-53 at Pierre Schaeffer's studio at the RTF in Paris. Until 1992 this piece was believed to have been lost. The LP also includes the celebrated Zeitmass (1955), and Klavierstück XI, parts I-IV (1956), both of which helped to cement Stockhausen's role as one of the leading German composers of the 20th century." Zeitmass performed by Arthur Gleghorn, Donald Muggeridge, Donald Leake, Donald Christlieb and William Ulyate in Los Angeles, 1958. Klavierstück XI performed by David Tudor in Köln, 1958.

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Spiral I & II, Pole, Wach, Japan, Zykus, Tierkries
Label:	EMI CLASSICS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	EMI 95598CD

Featured works Spiral I & II, Pole, Wach, Japan, Zykus, Tierkries and In Freundschaft. Performed by Harald Bojé, Christoph Caskel, Peter Eötvös, Tristan Fry, Markus Stockhausen, Margareta Hurholz. "This exciting series of 2-CD sets from EMI Classics features music written in the 20th century, a period of enormous upheaval, both political and artistic. During these 100 years, music went through an unprecedented period of revolution and transformation, and the music in these sets illustrates how these changes manifested themselves in the musical landscape. With striking covers and budget prices, these sets provide a perfect introduction to the oft-times challenging music of these composers."

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Stimmung
Label:	HARMONIA MUNDI (FRANCE)
Format:	CD/SACD
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	HMU 807408

Performed by Theatre of Voices, under the direction of Paul Hillier; recorded Sept. 2006. "With the 1968 Paris première of his 'Stimmung,' Karlheinz Stockhausen (b. 1928) exploded the very definition of vocal performance. This musical tour de force, made up of an unbroken sequence of 51 sonic models -- entirely built on the overtones of B-flat and presented in every possible voice combination -- experiments with new compositional techniques and deconstructs the mechanics of speech and song. Paul Hillier, a champion of early and contemporary vocal repertoire, leads Theatre of Voices in his newly created 'Copenhagen Version' of a 20th-century milestone that today remains as relevant as ever. Hillier's life-long relationship with 'Stimmung' began in the 1970s when he performed it as a member of Singcircle with the composer at the controls. With its serene but highly-charged aural landscape, the work is surprisingly one of Stockhausen's most accessible compositions: spiritual yet humorous, mystical yet worldly and erotic in its poetry." Hybrid CD/SACD disc that can play on any CD player, as well as SACD players.

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Bass Clarinet & Piano
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	MDG 6131451CD

Performed by Voker Hemken (bass clarinet) and Steffen Schleirmacher). "On his new MDG release, Steffen Schleiermacher pays homage to the great Karlheinz Stockhausen, who will turn eighty next year. This pianist specializing in modern music offers new interpretations of Stockhausen's 'Klavierstuck IX,' the most frequently performed work of modern piano music, as well as of 'Tierkreis', together with the clarinetist Volker Hemken. For Stockhausen, the piano was made for experimentation, and it was for this instrument that he wrote his serial compositions. In the transition between extremes and the mediation of them, 'Klavierstuck IX' nevertheless makes a very strong impression. Karlheinz Stockhausen has always had very clear ideas about the way of the world, about the cosmos and his role in it, about his own significance, about music and about esoterism: 'I began occupying myself with the twelve human characters of the zodiac, of which I until then had only a vague notion. While inventing each melody I thought of the nature of children, friends, and acquaintances born under the signs concerned.' 'In Freundschaft' exists for various solo instruments, but Volker Hemken of course presents it in the original version. His wealth of experience as a solo bass clarinetist in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra hardly prepared him for all that Tanze Luzefa holds in store in the way of meowing, purring, smacking, enticing, insisting, and tempting. Howling laughter, vigorous rhythmic clicking, and stamping are also heard."

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Mantra
Label:	NEW ALBION
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	NA 025CD

1986 recording of this infamous piece (originally premiered in 1970), performed by Yvar Mikhashoff (piano) and Ole Orsted (electronics). "...each of the sections comprises a microcosm from a different perspective. 'Mantra' is such a piece in that each of of its parts reflects itself, backwards, as in a mirror, standing on its head, elongated, compressed, twisted. It is super-redundant, pervasive, just like a bottle of Coke, that instead of a beverage produces the famous concept of 'Coca-Cola'... it is played once quite openly, and then as a kind of prayer, time and again in all its ratios of pitches, durations and tempos by the pianists. Indeed, it is a quasi-meditative, exotic, beautiful late- and post-serial music." --Reinhard Oehlschlagel.

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:	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:	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:	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:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Old School
Label:	ZEITKRATZER (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	ZKR 012CD

Recorded live on April 12, 2011 at Kino Siska, Ljubljana, Slovenia, and April 14, 2011 at Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, Zagreb, Croatia. This is the fourth release in the Zeitkratzer Old School series. The first three CDs, dedicated to the music of John Cage, James Tenney and Alvin Lucier have been highly-acclaimed. This new release is dedicated to the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Karlheinz Stockhausen is one of the most outstanding composers of the 20th century. After his early, super-organized compositions as Gesang Der Jünglinge, Kontakte or Studien 1 and 2, he conceived his From The Seven Days works as a precisely-organized text composition. Not one single note is written, but it is exactly defined: what kind of material the musicians should choose and how they should play it. Length, tempi, etc., are not given. Zeitkratzer had the chance to work on this piece in Ljubljana in the Spring of 2011, and tried to develop their approach to interpret the texts as precisely as possible, in the traditional way of score-reading. As Stockhausen pointed out: "musical meditation is not sentimentality, but ultra alertness and -- in the lightest moments -- creative ecstasy." Set sail for the sun. Directed by Reinhold Friedl. Burkhard Schlothauer (violin); Anton Lukoszevieze (violoncello); Ulrich Phillipp (double bass); Reinhold Friedl (piano); Christian Lillinger (percussion); Frank Gratkowski (reeds); Hild Sofie Tafjord (French horn); Hilary Jeffery (trombone); Martin Wurmnest (sound). Mixed by Martin Wurmnest, mastered by Rashad Becker, produced by Reinhold Friedl.
"I do not want a spiritualistic session. I want music." --Karlheinz Stockhausen

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