CD, стоящие на полке рядом : Classics (Modern Classics)      

Berliner Philharmoniker - Claudio Abbado

Группы (Gruppen, 1958) для трех оркестров

Whatever one's opinion of Karlheinz Stockhausen's work, Gruppen for three orchestras (1955-1957) is fast becoming a classic. The organisational system of the Darmstadt veteran's 22-minute opus tests pitch and rhythm as aspects of vibration, carves up the 109-member-Berlin Philharmonic into three formations and requires the musical direction of three conductors. It is an effective and well-crafted composition which benefits from the precision and clarity of the Berlin players. Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag (b. 1926) heard Gruppen early on, assimilated it and has produced an emotionally gripping and in many ways superior musical composition to Stockhausen's serialist polyphonies: Grabstein fur Stephan (Gravestone for Stephen) (1989) is scored for spaced groups of keyboards, tuned percussions, gongs, football supporters' alarm signals and whistles, reeds and brass, and low strings, all positioned around a solo guitar. It is dark, attractive music, and while intellectually subtle, does not require knowledge of differential and integral calculus or a university diploma in computer science to enjoy it. Kurtag's Stele, the third and last piece on this disc, is equally as compelling. Composed for a traditional orchestra and completed in October 1994, Stele is a perfectly chilling three-movement funeral symphony and a distinguished achievement in the genre. Claudio Abbado and his Berliners' performance, delivered without the slightest trace of modernist pomp, is another reason why this live recording should be acquired at once.

- Joseph E. Romero