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 I like Ligeti Apr 14, 2008
I like the inventiveness of G. Ligeti. The Musica Ricercata Suite is a good and early example of his continuous search for new musical structures.
I'm just a music listener, with no qualification to comment the interpretation of Mr. Aimard.
I'm satisfied.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 A nice micro-view of Ligeti's work Mar 11, 2007
In the notes that accompany this CD, Ligeti explains that his piano compositions are the way he made up for his inadequacies as a player. It's hard to argue that he didn't reach his goal. These superbly-performed pieces provide a clear view of many aspects of Ligeti's work--his humor, his lyricism, his ear, and sometimes his little obsessions.
The most obvious technical requirement of this music is touch. In some of the etudes, complex voicings are required at very low dynamic levels. In others, the ability to bring out multiple voices is paramount. Aimard is perfect. His technique is so assured that we can easily get to the music and not be sidetracked by prowess.
Those who know Ligeti's music know how protean he could be. Like a good athlete, he was willing to take on enormous risks. Sometimes the result felt intellectualized and tiresome. But more often than not, the music soared. This is certainly true of the Etudes on this disk. They are studies in the truest sense of the word--one may focus on a particular set of intervals, another on a texture, yet another on a rhythm. Each one is fascinating and the collection holds together nicely. There are even hints of Nancarrow!
Ligeti himself felt ambiguously about the "Musica Ricercata", and it isn't hard to see why. The first piece is based on only two pitches (with octaves); the second on three and so on. It sort of proves a point, but what point? By the time you get to the fourth piece, it starts to get good, but the listener has to regain some flagging energy. The third piece is actually the basis of the opening of "6 Bagatelles for Wind Quintet".
So while I have little quibbles, I still recommend this disk strongly. It's great music, beautifully played.
4 of 16 found the following review helpful:
Very Nice Piano Studies. Not the best Ligeti Sep 02, 2006
Volume 3 of the Gyorgy Ligeti Edition on Sony has gotten a boatload of very positive reviews, above, from people who probably know a lot more about music, especially piano music, than I do, but I maintain, from my position as a rank amateur who just happens to like listening to a wide range of classical music, that this disc is neither the very best piano music nor the most interesting Ligeti.
Don't get me wrong. I think almost all of the studies on these tracks are good, maybe even almost as good as Chopin and Liszt, but I don't think so. We don't hum Ligeti etudes the way some people hum Chopin etudes or dances for piano. And, a few of the passages sound like the scene from 'Ghostbusters' where Bill Murray tickles the very high keys on Sigourny Weaver's piano as they enter her apartment to track down some particularly awesome apparitions of Zuel (sic) and Gozer (sic sic).
If you are looking to touch only the high points of Ligeti's music and don't have the compulsioin to own everything, you can pass on these and not be missing too much of the good stuff. Check out his choral and a capella works for the really hot stuff.
1 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 More of Legeti's babblings Jan 13, 2006
I mean Elliot carter has been unjustly accused of "disjointed UNtonal schemeing music", , and other sharp criticisms, all of which is unfair, as these complaints are comming from the Tchaikovsky fans, who are too stringent in their tastes.
But here Legeti in this solo piano music has yet once again( as in all his music) showes himself stuck in some mode of writing which cannot seem to break away from his Nazi perscution days. Its a mix of self pity, anger, loathing of life, muisc that goes no where. its all as if Legeti is writing for himself, all out of his ego. For some reason his loyal fans, minute in numbers though this group is, are fiercely dedicated to preserving the Ligeti Legacy. "long live Ligeti" is their cry.
Just read the "stunning" reviews on all Ligeti's releases to know who are these Ligeti devotees.
Notice that you do not see one of these Legeti fans postinga comment on Elliot carter's incredible muisc, which is true art, as it transcends Carter's ego= uissues from Carter's creative unconscious...., whereas Legeti's music is nothing but "ligeti's ego".
I realize the great suffering Ligeti underwent by the nazi', but should that give him a "free pass" from fair criticism. Notice none of the positive reviews even dare mention a blantant characteristic of Legeti's music, its 'obnoxious tonal character", these bonifide Ligeti fans should at the very least give a fair forwarning "though I love his muisc, it MIGHT NOT be for your taste".
Ligeti seems to take the idea of not just composing for new forms, but destroying anything from which he may have learned from.
Sorry, but I'm content with Schonberg, Berg, Webern and especailly with Elliot carter avaliable, I have no need for Legeti's "peculiar" if not down right odd ideas.
9 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Perfect Ligeti. Oct 19, 2005
The own György Ligeti was asked about who was the pianist more complete in his piano works; he talked about Pierre-Laurent Aimard, whose a close relation with the XXth Century music is very well known (Boulez, Messiaen, Berg, Schönberg, Carter...) all around the world. He talked too about Volker Banfield, who has recorded some of the Etudes for Wergo, but not so good as Aimard recordings, in my opinion.
What we find in this CD, 3rd of an outstanding series, is the technical perfection made piano playing, in the hands of Aimard, who plays absolutely all the notes full of perfection, sense and correction, from the dynamic to the tempo, from the correct attack to the prodigious use of the pedal. If you are used to a romantic piano you can feel this versions a little cold or dry, but this is because Aimard goes directly to the heart of the XXth Century style of piano playing, in the line that comes from Schönberg-Berg-Webern and that goes in a different way of playing than the century before, so you can be lost in some sense about the way he understand the use of the piano, the playing, the technique, the echoes, the silences...
You'll find in this CD the Musica Ricercata, a work from Ligeti's first period, very easy to understand for those who are not used to listen this kind of "modern" music. It has many folk motives, used in a way very close to Bartók's style. One of this pieces (Musica ricercata: II. Mesto, rigido e cerimoniale) was taken by Stanley Kubrick for his last film Eyes Wide Shut, with an outstanding presence in the film associated to the worries and pressure over the main character; Ligeti says about this piece that it was a knife against the stalinist regime because of this style of music, sinister, innovative and forgiven in the communist Europe. The film's version is slower than this by Aimard, more "cinematographic" but slower than the score asks. Aimard's version in this piece and in the full pieces are outstanding.
The rest of the CD it's based on the Etudes, books I & II, both of them complete. Those are pieces much more modern than the Musica Ricercata, some of them, in the words of Ligeti with some links and inspiration on Nancarrow's works. We are listening in this case some of the most complex works for piano written in the XXth Century, and many of them authentic jewels of the genre. The Aimard versions for Sony are the better I know from the French pianist, who have recorded some of them in other CDs, like his great recording from de Carnagie Hall (Warner), but not so good like this outstanding CD.
So, if you are looking for perfection in Ligeti's piano music performances don't doubt about this CD; if you want to discover the piano of the XXth Century this could be a great door to go into, because of the music, because of the performing and because of a perfect recording and booklet.
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