Ferneyhough & Stockhausen: Grubby and Gruppen

Compared to his previous compositions, Ferneyhough’s Shadowtime is easy going. It’s almost as if his California tenure exposed him too thoroughly to Desperate Housewives and American Idol.

Up from the Archives

Deutsche Grammophon’s Echo 20/21, Wergo’s Fortieth, and ENHB

An Assortment of Moderns, Part II

I was way pleased when the Grammys gave George Crumb’s Star-child the honors for Best Contemporary Composition of 2000.

Stockhausen is Invisible

Stockhausen has historicised himself: very little of his work since embarking upon Licht has made it across the Atlantic, and he has almost vanished from America’s contemporary musical life.

Stockhausen’s Helikopter-Streichquartett

“I heard and saw the four string players in four helicopters flying in the air and playing…”

Helicopter String Quartet

The product of a commission Stockhausen couldn’t accept (“The string quartet is a typical genre of the 18th century”) and a later dream, the work places the members of the Arditti String Quartet in separate airborne helicopters.

Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Helicopter Quartet

There’s nothing in the least meretricious about Karlheinz Stockhausen (but mystical most certainly and another story altogether).

Three Reviews

A longtime staple of the Harmonia Mundi catalogue, Gregorio Paniagua’s La Folia deserves comment for its title alone.