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Presenter: Tom Service
Producer: Peter Thresh
Broadcast Assistant: Ben Warren
A Ligeti Retrospective
Tom Service introduces a concert of music by the great Hungarian born composer György Ligeti who died last month. Described once as a master of 'sonic drama,' Ligeti was a restless innovator from his days in his native Transylvania through the electronic years in Cologne to his last years when he was much impressed by the music of Africa . The programme contrasts some of Ligeti's more important orchestral scores with his many smaller scale works for voice, string quartet, piano, harpsichord and even barrel organ. The 12 motor horns featured in the overture to his opera Le Grand Macabre sit alongside the microtones of his Melodien ; the wired, super-human speeds of his harpsichord work Continuum contrast with the drawn out, electronically-inspired sonorities of Volumina for organ. Here was a composer who rejoiced in sound and rhythm.
LIGETI Musica ricercata (excerpt) 01'.21"
Pierre Charial (barrel organ)
LIGETI Overture Le Grand macabre (1974-7) 00'40"
London Sinfonietta, Markus Stenz (conductor)
SEGUE
LIGETI Glissandi: electronic composition segues to (1957) 07'34"
WERGO WER 6016150 (CD)
LIGETI Continuum, Antoinette Vischer (harpsichord) (1968) 03'45"
WERGO WER 6016150 (CD)
SEGUE
LIGETI Chamber Concerto for 13 instruments (1969/70) 19'34"
London Sinfonietta, Markus Stenz (conductor)
LIGETI Volumina: Hans-Ola Ericsson (organ) (1961/2 rev 66) 17'34"
BIS CD 509 (CD)
LIGETI Melodien for orchestra (1971) 12'08"
London Sinfonietta, Markus Stenz (conductor)
LIGETI Piano Concerto (revised version) with Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano) (1985/8) London Sinfonietta, Markus Stenz (conductor) 22'58"
LIGETI String Quartet no 2, Arditti String Quartet (1968) 19'28"
SONY SK 62306 (CD)
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For further details of any of tonight's composers, performers or pieces, please e-mail hear.and.now@bbc.co.uk
