Episode 5

Donald Macleod is joined by composer, pianist and teacher George Benjamin, to explore Ligeti's life and music.

He introduces vocal and choral music, including two of Ligeti's Nonsense Madrigals - the serene, slowly ebbing Lux Aeterna (one of the works Stanley Kubrick included in the soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey). Plus the Requiem, of which The Times music critic William Mann remarked after its London premiere that its effect was so compelling that he 'would gladly have forgone Beethoven's Ninth symphony after the interval'.

The Lobster Quadrille (1989) - excerpt
The King's Singers:
David Hurley, Nigel Short (countertenor)
Bob Chilcott (tenor)
Bruce Russell, Philip Lawson (baritone)
Stephen Connolly (bass)
Sony SK 62311, track 5

Sippal, dobal, nadihegeduvel (With pipes, drums, fiddles) - settings of Sandor Weores (2000)
Phyllis Bryn-Julson (soprano)
Rose Taylor (contralto)
Omar Ebrahmim (baritone)
Members of The Philharmonia Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)
Sony SK 62311, track 8

Lux aeterna (1966) - excerpt
London Sinfonietta Voices
Terry Edwards (conductor)
Sony SK 62305, track 12

Requiem (1963-5)
Liliana Poli (soprano)
Barbro Ericson (mezzo-soprano)
Chorus of Bavarian Radio
Hessian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Michael Gielen (conductor)
Wergo 60 045-50, track 1

Cuckoo in the Pear Tree (1988) - excerpt
The King's Singers:
David Hurley, Nigel Short (countertenor)
Bob Chilcott (tenor)
Bruce Russell, Philip Lawson (baritone)
Stephen Connolly (bass)
Sony SK 62311, track 2.