As another lister wonders about the End of Classical Music, I've been
just *reveling* in the music of Ligeti--a very much alive and breathing
composer.  It's hard for me to explain, but he's one of the few modern,
(and late 20th Century!) composers whose music sounds shockingly modern,
yet retains a mythical and arcane quality that I typically project only
upon the "dead guys." And ironically, as I follow the Sony/Gelb story, I
have to say that the Ligeti project is one of the few offerings by any
label that I would consider buying at full pop.

A few recommendations:

The Violin/Cello/Piano Concerti.  (DG/Boulez) (I wrote a review of the
amazing Violin Concerto, which you can find in the archives).  Written in
1992, it offers an amazing, indescribable soundworld--the orchestral color
and rhythms are so amazing that my brother stopped to ask who it was.

Atmospheres/Lontano. (DG/Abbado) A live recording with the VPO, but you
would never know.  Even if Sony had completed the project, I doubt Salonen
could have beat Abbado's riveting performance.  Ligeti's "cloud music
phase." The composer explores music as layers of sound, sometimes massive,
sometimes lightly-textured; bereft of rhythm.  Some of the chance
tonalities that occur as the sound layers slide past each other can
be wonderfully post-Romantic sounding.

The Etudes.  (The rest of the recommendations are available on the
Sony/Ligeti edition.  Compositional ideas as mighty as the virtuosity.
Ligeti mentions that the music of African cultures has been a rich source
for his own music, (as well as Chopin, Debussy, Nancarrow, Jazz, and
mathematics), but mentions that it is always the *notions* of their musical
ideas, rather than the music itself that he uses as the basis for a
particular composition.  Perhaps this is why Ligeti's music can exist
comfortably under the 300year umbrella of "Classical Music, and still
enjoy a degree of potency, renewal, and, I know this is a loaded term,
gratifying unpredictable predictability.  I would hope that anyone who
enjoys Rzewski's, (sp?) "The People United..." would proudly stack Ligeti's
Etudes right up there next to it.

Among the other keyboard works, a piece for organ stands out--"Volumina."
(Donald Scarinsci--are you listening?) A stunning exploration into the
sounds, actual and manipulated), of the pipe organ.  Riveting, (and
earth-shaking), from beginning to end, it's one of the few pieces of *any*
CM that has compelled friends to ask me if they could take the CD home for
another listen.

Finally, some of the Vocal works.  So many listeners, when confronted
with humor by composers that they consider godlike, feel let down--almost
hurt--as if their friend who has led them upwards through the ranks of
intellectual society suddenly became and embarrassing liability at one
the most important social events of the year.  With Ligeti's "Adventures"
and "Nouvelles Adventures," such is the case--singers mock the stuffy,
scolding, powdered wig declamations of the harpsichord; though later they
find themselves left alone--isolated and confused.  The psyche of the
modern artist?

So is Ligeti's music so easy as to make it's lasting quality suspect? My
dog even sits up for "Adventures!" IMHO, no. A look through the liner
notes reveal Ligeti to be a well-rounded, curious, adventurous, humorous,
high-minded, low-minded, and most importantly, human.  Give him a try.

John Smyth