Search - Karlheinz Stockhausen, Elisabeth Klein :: Stockhausen: Piano Music

This CD aims a wider public

09/04/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The pianist was aged 87 by occasion of this recording. She studied two years with Béla Bártok, and through her long career she has given special attention to 20th Century composers. Two beautiful interpretations of "Klavierstück XI" and a neoclassical version of "Plus-Minus" prepared by the composer Nils Holger Petersen make this CD a must to every one who appreciates Stockhausen's music. This version of "Plus-Minus" as well as the pianist's tender reading of "Tierkreis" would certainly be appreciated even by music fans who hate the avant-garde music of the 50's and 60's. However, it is very difficult for me to accept her version of "Aus den Sieben Tagen". The pianist was inspired by the text "Litanei" (where she found "signs" from Stockhausen) and put together a collage made of fragments from the composer's piano production. She claims not to have added a single note to the Stockhausen material. The result is beautiful, but I think that a performance that is planned in detail such as this one cannot be called "intuitive music"."