Search - Karlheinz Stockhausen, Rosalind Bevan, Yvar Mikashoff :: Stockhausen - MANTRA

Experience this !

Alejandra Vernon | Long Beach, California | 10/04/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"They put a lot of labels on this type of music..."post modern serialism" and such. I think perhaps some people may be put off by the "intellectual jargon" that surrounds modern music...I just call it beautiful ! Wonderful sounds, echoes, rhythms, are played by 2 pianos (Mikhashoff and Bevan) and "Electronics" (created by Orsted).This is a great piece to put on very late at night, when it's quiet enough to fully appreciate the sound qualities, or to listen to on a good pair of earphones. In mood, I find it almost meditative.If you haven't heard this kind of music before, it may take a couple of hearings for one's ear to get tuned into it...and it's worth the time ! You'll get hooked. This is truly wonderful music."

Great piece - lack luster recording

Anthony Green | Boston/Providence | 07/21/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Ever since I heard Gruppen, I've been such an admirer of Stockhausen's music. I came across Mantra's score while browsing my school's music library, and immediately began working on it. Unfortunately, the pianist I had in mind to perform it with me told me, "This is impossible." So, I settled for listening to recordings. I bought this recording on a whim randomly at Border's, and then listened to the 2 recordings that my music library has. The first time I listened to this recording, I thought it was a bit lack luster, but I wanted to confirm this by comparing it to the other recordings. I was disappointingly correct.



HOWEVER, I applaud these two pianists' efforts at performing this piece. It is EXTREMELY difficult, and this recording IS a good recording for those curious in hearing the ideas, the compositional genius, and the essence of Stockhausen. He is a composer who deserves ALL OF THE RESPECT that he has been given, and I love his music to death."

Limited and outdone by other serialist works employing elect

Christopher Culver | 11/26/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Karlheinz Stockhausen composed "Mantra" for two pianos and electronics in 1970. It is historically important as it marked the composer's turn from traditional serialism to "formula composition", basing an entire work on the expansion of some short, basic material. The live electronics consist only of ring modulation. What one gets is basically the sparse, bleep-bloopy pointilistic piano music of 1950s serialism (Pierre Boulez's piano sonatas, Stockhausen's early Klavierstuecke) occasionally giving a timbral shot in the arm by the electronics.



This sort of serialism lacks gestalt, and so in order to be interesting it needs to be fast, rich in timbres, and very busy. Even though Boulez was using similar gimmickry with basic live electronics in "Repons", that piece works pretty good because it was at least energetic. If you've never heard a serialist piano work before, "Mantra" might be interesting, but the sort of crowd who would seek this out has likely already become content with those 1950s pieces and isn't needing any more. Someone interested in Stockhausen's later music would do better to seek out "Tierkreis" or any of the myriad pieces connected with his opera LICHT."