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WER 7326
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"Wergo offers this pair of new releases featuring two icons of contemporary American music, John Cage and Henry Cowell. . . . Sabine Liebner's collection of piano works by Cowell and Cage explores the period from 1912-1948 and documents not only the emergence of American experimental music, but also their teacher-student relationship. Amiable Conversation allows us to compare Cowell's piano pieces with Cage's to reveal common features that are as clear as the differences."
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WER 7320
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"Anyone performing John Cage's music cannot avoid silence. In all the works performed on percussionist Matthias Kaul's collection, silence is realized in the most concrete way. For this major project, Kaul used ninety different instruments and objects including conch shells and pine cones."
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WER 6766
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"This recording features the Bugallo-Williams Duo playing György Kurtág's complete works for piano duet and two pianos as included in the eight published volumes of Játékok (Games). The work's original concept was as a collection of pedagogical performance pieces, and the composer has been adding to the series since 1973. Eight volumes had been published as of 2010, and volumes IV and VIII are for piano 4-hands or two pianos. In addition to a focus on rhythm and time, Kurtág also addresses techniques including using palms, fists and forearms as a means of exploring the keyboard."
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WER 6797CD
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"Cage composed his Number Pieces during the last six years of his life. Their titles indicate the number of performers or parts. Their notation is based on fixed and flexible 'time brackets.' The fixed brackets show when a musician should begin and end a pitch or tonal event. With the flexible brackets, the interpreter decides, within a predetermined time frame, when an instrument enters and when it falls silent. This disc, featuring pianist Sabine Liebner, explores two of Cage's late masterworks."
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WER 6316CD
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"Kurt Schwitters's Sonate in Urlauten (Sonata in Primal Sounds) blurs the boundaries between speech and music. The literal translation of the title indicates a link between language and the musical form of the sonata; Ursonate could be translated literally as 'sound poetry.' This groundbreaking work, more than any other work in the genre, reached an unparalleled fame. On this CD, the SprechKunstTrio (speech art trio) Sprechbohrer presents their unique interpretation of Schwitters's magnum opus."
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WER 6789CD
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"Adriana Hölszky is a Romanian-born German composer, pianist and educator. Since 2000 she has been professor of composition at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg. She describes her compositions as 'sound spaces,' in which there are expanding and shrinking spaces and there are shifts from one sound area to another (which she compares to film editing with its sharp cuts or gentle fades). This recording featuring organist Dominik Susteck, violinist Sabine Akiko Ahrendt, and percussionist Jens Brülls exploring a selection of three of Hölszky's fascinating works."
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WER 6786
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"Japanese composer Keiko Harada studied piano, chamber music and conducting at the Toho Gakuen College of Music and studied composition with Manabu Kawai, Akira Miyoshi, Brian Ferneyhough and Gyorgy Kurtag. This release from Wergo features pianist Yumiko Meguri and accordion player Stefan Hussong in a selection of three key works by Harada -- 'F-fragments' for accordion and piano, 'Book I' for solo accordion and seven selections from 'Nach Bach', a work inspired by J.S. Bach's 'Well Tempered Clavier.'"
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WER 6778
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"The latest reissue in Wergo's studio reihe series is very special. This recording, featuring soprano Helga Pilarczyk and conductor Pierre Boulez performing Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire, was the first release on the newly founded Wergo label in 1962, and it was the recording that laid the foundation of the label's decades-long story of success. Unavailable on CD up to now, this highlight from Wergo's early days has been remastered for CD to offer the finest sound quality." Performed by: Helga Pilarczyk (soprano); Maria Bergmann (piano); Jacques Castagner (flute); Guy Deplus (clarinet); Louis Montaigne (bass clarinet); Luben Yordanoff (violin); Serge Collot (viola); Jean Huchot (cello). Includes an 80-page booklet.
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WER 6785
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"Stockhausen's Amour is a series of five pieces for clarinet based on short poems written as gifts for women whom the composer was deeply connected to. The most complex and hypnotic of these is 'Die Schmetterlinge spielen' ('The Butterflies Playing'). 'Der kleine Harlekin' ('The Little Harlequin') is probably the best known of Stockhausen's theatrical works. The clarinetist faces a musically demanding score while wearing a costume and performing a range of dance movements precisely indicated in the score. 'Wochenkreis' ('Circle of the Week') describes an initiatory journey from birth to ascension to God, accompanied by the electronic sounds produced by the synthesizer player who has the role of the antagonist Lucifer." Performed by: Michele Marelli (clarinet, basset horn) and Antonio Perez Abellan (synthesizer).
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WER 6587
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"Wergo's disc of music by composer Sergej Newski focuses on the primordial element of the voice. This recording includes a selection of his works performed by the Ensemble Mosaik, musikFabrik, VocalConsort Berlin, and Titus Engel."
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WER 6859
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"Chinese-Australian composer Liza Lim was inspired by the lyric poetry of the Sufi poet Hafiz for her work Tongue of the Invisible. Lim explains, 'the way in which he mixes and shifts levels of meaning gives rise to complex and indeterminable frames of mind in oneself.' This variety of meaning is first and foremost reflected in the juxtaposition and coexistence of precisely and meticulously composed textures and improvised elements. But the compilation of the text set to music also facilitates numerous variants and interpretations. These dialogues are superbly 'narrated' here by the pianist Uri Caine, singer Omar Ebrahim, and the soloists of the ensemble musikFabrik."
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WER 6764
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"In February 2008, five musician friends met at Elmau Castle in the Bavarian Alps: Markus Stockhausen, Tara Bouman, Stefano Scodanibbio, Fabrizio Ottaviucci, and Mark Nauseef. Their intent was to make a recording of Intuitive Music: a music that is fleeting -- since it is only intended for the moment -- but nevertheless deserves documentation. For four days, they played together, without music or prior discussion. The rules of this intuitive ensemble-playing had to do with discovering, listening intensely, responding, contrasting, and constructing -- but with everything in real time."
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WER 6783
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Featured works: S1 for two pianos, Un-fini III, iv 11a, iv 11b, Contrapunctus, iv 1. Performed by Tomoko Hemmi and Yukiko Sugawara. "The piano works of Mark Andre are founded on his intensive examination of the fleeting phenomenon of sound reverberation and decay. His fading sounds can take numerous forms; there might be a thick cluster that reverberates on a single string, or a single note that causes the entire landscape of strings to resonate. On this recording, Tomoko Hemmi and Yukiko Sugawara interpret Andre's experimental constructions, focusing on his more recent pieces which seem softer and more playful, although here, too, the intrinsic logic and necessity of every transition and development has been closely scrutinized."
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WER 6749
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"Zeit(t)räume, dedicated to works by Stockhausen and Berio, features soprano Claudia Böttcher and pianist Jovita Zähl. Stockhausen's music box cycle Tierkreis is presented here in a version for soprano and piano alongside his Klavierstück IX, which exemplifies principles of his serial thinking. In Berio's Sequenza III, a wealth of emotional states is expressed, while the special charm that characterizes Quattro Canzoni poplari is rooted in the composer's fascinating interpretations of traditional folk songs."
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WER 6760
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"Written over a span of forty years, these compositions by Sofia Gubaidulina have become staples of the double bass literature. In Pantomime one immediately senses a certain theatricality, which is evoked by dramatic pauses and dynamic progressions. Originally written for cello, the Preludes were later arranged for double bass. For In Croce, Gubaidulina pairs the bass with a bayan, (a Russian accordion). The work was inspired by the composer's experiments with folk instruments. Bassist Daniele Roccato is accompanied by pianist Fabrizio Ottaviucci and bayan player Massimiliano Pitocco."
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WER 6756
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"Wolfgang Rihm's compositions for string quartet are as extensive as they are varied. A selection of these works can be found on this recording featuring the Minguet Quartet and pianist Markus Bellheim. Rihm's String Quartet No.11 is a piece of work of extreme contrasts -- restrained and explosive, simple and virtuosic, fragile and forced to the point of screaming, tightly homophonic and polyphonically splintered to the edge of total dissolution. Interscriptum is an elaboration of Rihm's twelfth string quartet. To the quartet ensemble, treated as one instrument, a piano part is added, which initiates a dialogue and creates entirely new relationships within the piece. Grave is dedicated to the Alban Berg Quartet, and was written in response to the group's request for a requiem."
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WER 6773
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"Herbert Eimert (1897-1972) was a German music theorist, musicologist and composer. Eimert, a fervent disciple of Arnold Schönberg, felt strongly that his mentor's 12-tone ideal could be best achieved through the use of electronics. This classic reissue from Wergo's influential Studio Reihe series features Epitaph, Eimert's powerfully emotional spoken-word based tribute to Japanese fisherman Aikichi Kuboyama, who died of radiation poisoning incurred when the first hydrogen bomb was tested in the South Pacific in 1954. Eimert's Sechs Studien, was derived from the same source material, but uses only abstract musical sounds in a spectrum where the spoken word can no longer be recognized."
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WER 6771
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"Wergo's Studio Reihe reissue series continues with a classic recording of Stravinsky's last ballet, Agon, performed by the Sinfonieorchester des Südwestfunks, Baden-Baden conducted by Hans Rosbaud, and originally released on LP in 1964. Agon was written over a period of three years from 1954-1957. Employing various compositional methods, the resulting work combines modal and serial techniques in a unique way. Stravinsky based the construction of his work on a French dance textbook from the mid-17th century, but gave no thought to the décor or scenery and specified no musical or choreographic intention. The visual performance was to be left entirely to interpretation." Double CD packaging containing 1 CD, plus a 76-page booklet.
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WER 6770
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"In the early 1960s, Wergo launched a series that would become legendary in the history of contemporary music recordings. Studio Reihe Neuer Musik featured some of the most significant and cutting-edge compositions of the modern era. Many of the recordings in the series have never been released on CD and some have been unavailable in any form for many years. Arnold Schönberg's sprechstimme monodrama Erwartung is possibly the most famous title in the series. Soprano Helga Pilarczyk offers a riveting performance of one of the most important and influential works of the 20th century." Performed by Helga Pilarczyk (soprano), Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Hermann Scherchen. Includes a 76-page booklet.
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WER 6775
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"Luc Ferrari may not be the most famous name in the Studio Reihe Neuer Musik series, but his music had a profound impact on music of the time. His mixing of magnetic tape and instruments, inspired by Varèse, was combined with pioneering work in the area of ambient music and the use of natural sounds." Performed by Gérard Frémy (piano).
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WER 6772
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"Wergo's essential reissues from their famous 1960s era Studio Reihe series continue with a recording of music by Karlheinz Stockhausen. The composer's 'Zyklus für einen Schlagzeuger' is offered in two different versions performed by two different performers: Max Neuhaus and Christoph Caskel. Stockhausen originally wrote the work for the Kranichstein Percussion Competition in 1959. He deliberately did not determine the length of the piece's performance, so as not to be overly specific concerning the work's multiplicity of meanings, the different characters of various performances, or the technical abilities of the players. For 'Klavierstück X,' performed here by the legendary pianist Frederic Rzewski, Stockhausen combined two extremes. The work is based on the attempt to mediate between relative disorder and order, chaos and balance."
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5CD BOX
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WER 6951
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"Wergo was one of the first labels to recognize the avant-garde genius of Cage and offered the début recordings of some of his most important works. In celebration of his 100th birthday Wergo presents this specially-priced anniversary boxed set containing five collector's item discs featuring a selection of Cage's key works." CD1: Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano, performed by Joshua Pierce (prepared piano) (1975);
CD2: Piano Concerto, Atlas Eclipticalis, performed by Joseph Kubera (piano), The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, Petr Kotík (conductor) (1992);
CD3: Introduction to the play 1982 performed by John Cage; An Alphabet performed by John Cage and friends (1990);
CD4: Variations II; Eight Whiskus; Music for Two; Ryoanji performed by Malcolm Goldstein (violin), Matthias Kaul (percussion, glass harmonica) (1998);
CD5: Etudes Boreales; Harmonies; 10'40.3" performed by Friedrich Gauwerky (cello), Mark Knoop (piano) (2009).
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WER 6776
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"In the early 1960s, Wergo launched a series that would become a legend in the history of contemporary music recordings. Studio Reihe Neuer Musik featured some of the most important and cutting-edge compositions of the modern era. Some of these seminal recordings have never been released on CD and some have been unavailable in any form for many years. On the occasion of the label's 50th anniversary, Wergo is releasing a selection of these gems from the early days of its 50-year history. The series starts with recordings of works by Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Christian Wolff." Performed by: Siegfried Palm (cello), Sinfonieorchester des Südwestfunks, Baden-Baden, Ernest Bour (conductor), Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Hans Zender (conductor).
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WER 6943
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"The sixth and final volume in Wergo's acclaimed series of recordings, Earle Brown - A Life in Music completes the label's reissue of the eighteen LPs of Earle Brown's legendary Contemporary Sound Series, recorded between 1960 and 1973. The first disc in the set contains works by Cage and Wolff from the early 1960s. Disc two presents violinist Paul Zukofsky accompanied by pianist Gilbert Kalish in works by Crumb, Yun, Wuorinen and Cage. The final disc contains works by South American composers Gerardo Gandini, César Bolaños, Marlos Nobre, Oscar Bazán, Manuel Enríquez and Alcides Lanza, performed by the New Sound Composers-Performers Group under the direction of Alcides Lanza."
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WER 6751
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"To celebrate composer Wolfgang Rihm's 60th birthday, Wergo presents this selection of his music for organ. In Rihm's works, the organ holds a special position. The works heard here, performed by young organist Dominik Susteck, span his entire career, from the early Drei Fantasien to the more recent Bann, Nachtschwärmerei."
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