Search - Karlheinz Stockhausen, Arditti String Quartet :: Stockhausen: Helikopter Streichquartett ("Helicopter" String Quartet) (Arditti Quartet Edition, Vol. 35)

A performance concept with potential, but a pointless CD.

C. Burkhalter | 09/17/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This 1992-93 Stockhausen composition/conception is pretty interesting. In June of 1995, in three performances, the renowned Arditti String Quartet was lifted into the air in four helicopters (one performer per chopper). Their respective performances were broadcast onto giant television screens and through speakers, situated in an audio-visual hall as well as outdoors. In addition to watching the performers on screen, the outdoor audience could see the helicopters hovering roughly six kilometers above them. At the end of the performance, cameras followed the musicians and pilots from the helicopters to the hall, where they were introduced to the audience - an entrance to put just about any rock stars' to shame! There seems to be a lot to talk about here. The performance sets up an interesting relationship between performer and audience, separating the audience by a distance of six kilometers from the performers they've converged to watch and listen to. The outdoor screens and the placement of the helicopters themselves places avant garde performance into a public and real-time sphere. It lends an unmistakable sense of awe and spectacle to the performance. Etc., etc. But everything that's interesting to me about this concept is tied up in the idea of performance, and unfortunately does not translate, frankly, at all to home listening. Worse, this CD does not record the aforementioned performance. Rather, the composition written for this performance was recorded in a studio at a later date, and then a canned recording of the slightly irregular hum of spinning helicopter rotor blades was added in the background. So this CD isn't even a document of an interesting idea, but simply a rather straight-forward string quartet recording (on the virtues of the actual composition I can't very well speak, I'm not exactly a "trained ear") muddied up with some fairly annoying helicopter noise (the musical appeal of the rotor noise seems minimal, at least in this recording, and to me it is the least interesting thing the helicopters have to offer). Kind of a pointless release, I'm afraid. The worst of it is that recordings of two of the three June 1995 performances do exist in the Stockhausen Foundation archives. So why not at least release one of those rather than this utter failure?"

Be Honest

P. Kelley | 01/25/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"How many of you think nothing of listening to music in the car, on the bus or in public with headphones, or even at home with the dog barking and the neighbor's lawnmower in the background? In other words, anywhere but the otherwise silent environment the composer surely had in mind when he wrote the piece. All Stockhausen has done is add the inevitable background noise, in a controlled manner and blending harmoniously with the instruments."

The only interesting part

P. Kelley | SC United States | 06/29/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"In my humble opinion, the only truly interesting bit in the entire string quartet is when the cellist falls out of his helicopter in the third movement, and must be rescued from the craggy rocks below. The sound of blood splattering against the helicopter blades adds a pizzicato-like effect that compensates for the incessant chopping sound that humans unanimously associate with helicopters (otherwise known as "choppers"). This feature of the piece must be responsible for its infrequent performances, as it must be agreed that breaking one's neck for the sake of this risible member of the so-called musical avant garde does not exactly qualify as a career-advancing move."