helmut lachenmann c/d; s/d

GUERO für Klavier; PRESSION für Violincello solo; GRAN TORSO für Streichquartett

Beautifully abstract, all traditional instrumental sounds eschewed, the lessons of musique concrete making inroads into live performance with classical instrumentation. Huge dynamic range, very intimate, and the way the tiny sounds somehow hang together & move forward is pretty electrifying. Fans of early experimental industrial music might like this.

There are other recordings of these pieces available on disc, but all of these pieces lined up in a row makes a huge impact.

I've bought two discs containing more recent material: one was the ECM recording of Schwankungen Am Rand, the other was several pieces from the 80's. Sounds like typical modernism with traditional orchestral textures, and it didn't grab me.

I've seen Salut für Caldwell for two guitars in live performance; lots of precision strumming & plucked off kilter rhythms with fantastic attention to the overtones. It was fantastic, want to get a copy of that someday.

I would also recommend the releases on Col Legno as I think they have something like 6 cds of his work. My personal favorite is the Piano Pieces performed by Roland Keller with Ein Kinderspiel and Guero (obviously a big influence on me personally).

I think the most astounding thing about any of the pieces is that for being very theoretically driven music (he uses the term "renunciation" to describe the compositional process for some of the pieces from the 60s as in the renunciation of traditional performance, listening, etc.), they are all very listenable. The emphasis on texture and the timbres buried within an instument really yield up results that are actually beautiful at times as opposed to a pieces of music that feels like the result of an exercise.

the best way to cook fish is not to cook it

everyone needs to hear this...

Ok I've only heard operas when they've been shown on TV (and never stuck with it for long) but it sounds very different.

What am I on about, it doesn't!

Zender also has a good Feldman, the audience coughs & shuffles actually add something...

ok Lachenmann > Scelsi > Zender > Feldman, we only have two associations left to reach Skynryd.

belated thanks for Julio for those CDRs of 'das madchen mit...' (which I simply passed on to Drew after buying a copy for myself, I was hoping he'd explain the methodology behind and perhaps list the samples of orchestral music in the liner notes -- and he did!) fragmented, delirious, ten thousand magnets

I know there's a 2 CD set (ECM) of 'das madchen...', if i see it second hand I'd be tempted to snap it up...hope drew liked this.

Wednesday 13 April 2005
7.30pm, Jerwood Hall, LSO St Luke's, London
BBC Radio 3 Invitation Concert

Helmut Lachenmann: Mouvement vor der Erstarrung
Helmut Lachenmann: '...zwei Gefühle...', Musik mit Leonardo
Luke Stoneham: Hip to Easter Island
Stefano Gervasoni: Antiterra
Iancu Dumitrescu: Au delà de Movemur (II) world premiere

***Free tickets*** available from 020 8576 1227 or radio.ticket.unit@bbc.co.uk
More info

lachenmann was there himself to speak the text for '...zwei Gefühle...'. I had not realized before how much sound ('sound poetry') the instrumentalists of the orchestra actually have to recite. the dumitrescu was new, its for 7-8 strings players and it's an extension of the work he's done with grillo. wasn't bad but felt underwhelmed at the end of it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,16373,1649608,00.html

And look at this bit:For Nono, every note had to have a political and structural purpose. It was a gruelling apprenticeship. "I never dared to write a trill," Lachenmann recalls. "If I wrote two notes together, Nono would say, 'This is a melodic cell', or he would demand, 'Where is your political standpoint?'"

And yet, his music has many thrills.

aargh Niblock/lachenamnn for the ppl of landaaan town - just saw this, go if i don't.

gah damn my lame-ness.

Have you stolen my CD collection or something?

We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada) on Tuesday, 30 November 2004 20:22 (2 years ago)

no, this music is just insanely popular, that's all.

(Jon L) on Tuesday, 30 November 2004 20:30 (2 years ago)

Really nice article!

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-et-helmut16apr16,1,7550763.story

& another

Transbay New Music Calendar is publishing a two part review of his lecture & concert at Mills last January, sadly not online

I like it except what 'he brings' isn't some vague 'sense of quest' -- that is the bare requirement -- but that he goes maybe further than most in trying to incorporate this stuff into a traditional frame. Like all the best experimental composers (Spahlinger, Schnebel, Bauckholt, etc) this is what makes them a more powerful proposition in that they're also harder to ignore.

His "just try to like it" is still funny...I'm going to say this every time someone boringly complains about classical music.

Helmut Lachenmann Weekend - Fun For All the Family!

Great! Will look to go along to the chamber music recital

https://van-us.atavist.com/lachenmann

that was a fucking great interview. Lachenmann super OTM in numerous passages.

He has been on my to-do list for several years; i guess I was waiting for the right album to turn up in the used bin/on emusic/on some blog as the right entry port.

https://www.discogs.com/Helmut-Lachenmann-Gran-Torso-Guero-Pression/release/554364
https://www.discogs.com/Helmut-Lachenmann-Das-Mädchen-Mit-Den-Schwefelhölzern/release/2278061