Köln · NDR Symphony Orchestra · conductor: Ernest Bour

György Ligeti: The Ligeti Project © 2016 Warner Classics 0825646028580

At the beginning of February 1957 I travelled from Vienna to Cologne and there, in the studios of West German Radio, I learned the technique of electronic music; my teacher was Gottfried Michael Koenig. I also learned a lot from Stockhausen, spending six weeks as his guest and watching him complete Gruppen, one of his most important pieces. After working in the studio for two years, I returned to live instrumentalists and wrote Apparitions in 1958/59. Its first movement takes up and develops material that I had already used in Víziók in Budapest, while the second movement is “micropolyphonic”, in other words, it is made up of complex interwoven textures. Apparitions caused a scandal when it was first performed under Ernest Bour in Cologne in June 1960.

© 2001–2003 Teldec Classics & 2004 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd | Translation: Louise Duchesneau