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CD/SACD
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BIS 1876CD
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"For those who have followed the career of Kalevi Aho (for instance through the more than 20 discs of his music released on BIS), it will be clear that he enjoys large-scale projects. One such project has been his 'oboe project', composing works in every genre for the instrument. These plans can be said to have begun soon after the Sonata for Oboe and Piano included here, composed in 1984?85 and thus possibly the first such work for this combination by a Finnish composer. The project received fresh impetus in 2002, when Aho encountered the eminent Belgian oboist Piet Van Bockstal. As a result he composed his Oboe Concerto, premièred by Bockstal in 2008, a work in which Aho wanted to explore fresh directions for tonality as well as creating orchestral music with a more powerful rhythmic pulse and a richer sound-world. As a result the Concerto employs scales from Arabic classical music as a melodic basis in some of its five movements, and also features the Arabic darabuka and African djembe (two types of goblet drum)." Featured works: Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra (2007); Solo IX for Oboe (2010); Sonata for Oboe and Piano (1984-85). Performed by: Piet Van Bockstal, oboe. Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins, Yutaka Oya, piano. Stereo/multichannel hybrid SACD that can be played on any CD player.
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CD
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BIS 1503CD
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"This chronological exploration of the musical universe of György Ligeti begins in 1948, with a brief piece for solo piano composed by a 25-year old music student in Budapest and ends with his final compositions, also for solo piano, when Ligeti had long since become established as one of the truly great figures of 20th-century music. On the way, it takes in a number of works which demonstrate the kaleidoscopic qualities of the composer and his oeuvre -- from the sharply delineated sense of humour displayed in the Six Bagatelles to the otherworldliness of Lux Aeterna (used by Stanley Kubrick in his film 2001: A Space Odyssey), and the sheer mass of Volumina for organ, in which the performer uses elbows, arms, and the palms of his hands in order to strike the largest possible number of keys at the same time. The music and its creator are described in an enlightening essay by the musicologist Arnold Whittall, who quotes a remark by Ligeti himself as one explanation for this almost bewildering range of moods and atmospheres: 'everything that is direct and unambiguous is alien to me.' Ligeti's oeuvre certainly bears this out, while also testifying to another observation by the composer: 'what is serious is at the same time comical, and the comical is terrifying.' The present, amply filled anthology brings together some seminal Ligeti works in interpretations that were highly praised when originally released, by performers of international standing, including Nobuko Imai, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, Fredrik Ullén and Hans-Ola Ericsson, as well as the eminent vocal ensemble Schola Heidelberg." Featured works: Invention for piano (1948); Six Bagatelles for wind quintet (1953); Volumina for organ (1961-62, rev. 1966); Lux Aeterna for choir a cappella (1966); Ten Pieces for wind quintet (1968); Sonata for Viola Solo (1991-94); Three Études for piano (1985-2001). Performed by: Fredrik Ullén, piano; Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet; Hans-Ola Ericsson, organ; Nobuko Imai, viola; Schola Heidelberg / Walter Nußbaum. Total playing time: 81 minutes.
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BIS 1453CD
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"Born in 1960, the Japanese composer Mari Takano studied in Japan and then Germany, where Gyorgy Ligeti became a mentor to her, providing liberating impulses. Ligeti is also a near-constant presence throughout this program of works composed between 2003 and 2009. The four duos and trios that share the title LigAlien are all in various ways the results of an idea which occurred to Takano in 2002 -- what would it be like to implant 'alien' DNA (i.e. her own) into one of Ligeti's works? Explaining the process in her own liner notes, Takano started in LigAlien I with elements from the second movement of Ligeti's Horn Trio, 'letting them evolve in all kinds of directions. In the course of the work, the interruptions become bolder and more prominent, until nothing is left of Ligeti's idea. Instead an alien being has come into life, a being which seems to like jazz quite a lot.' Interspersing the four 'LigaAliens' are two solo pieces, Jungibility for piano and Full Moon for violin and electronics, which also embrace a wealth of ideas both musical and otherwise ? when discussing the works, Takano herself refers to Duke Ellington, Omar Sosa and Stockhausen (Jungibility) and Bjork, Pina Bausch and Miles David (Full Moon). Dedicated to the memory of Ligeti, the closing Flute Concerto is the largest work on the disc, both in terms of duration and the forces involved."
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