Composer: György Ligeti
Performer: Sibylle Ehlert, Laura Claycomb, Charlotte Hellekant, Jard van Nes
Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra
Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Sony
Catalogue: S2K62312
Release: 2017
Size: 395 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Le Grand Macabre (1997 Version)
CD 01
Act I
01. Car Horn Prelude
Scene One
02. Dies Irae
03. Away, you swag-pot!
04. Shut up!
05. Oh…! – Amanda! Can do no more!
06. Ha-ha-ha-ha! Hey! Give me my requisites, slave
07. Melting snow is thy breast
08. Second Car Horn Prelude
Scene Two
09. One! Two! Three! Five!
10. Shapely and attractive figure
11. Venus! Venus!
12. Stop! – Sh!… Quiet, for heaven’s sake!
13. Who’s there? A Man? – A Man!
14. Finale: Fire and death I bring
CD 02
Act II
Scene Three
01. Door Bell Prelude
02. Arse licker, arse-kisser!
03. Posture exercises!
04. Tsk… – Pssst! Ha! Head of my Secret Service
05. Ahh! …Secret cypher!
06. Hurray, hurray! My wife is dead, hurray!
07. Nekrotzars Entrance
08. Woe! Ooh! For the day of wrath
09. There’s no need to fear
10. Up! – Drink! – Up!
11. Galimatias: Hmm! It’s delicious
12. Where am I? What time is it?
13. Interlude
Scene Four
14. Ghost Astradamors, are you dead?
15. Mirror Canon
Finale
16. Passacaglia: Ah, it was good
Hungarian-born composer György Ligeti is one of the late 20th-Century’s most influential creative figures. This recording was made under the composer’s supervision & captures the live performance of the opera ‘Le Grand Macabre’ at Paris’ Theatre du Chatelet. Esa-Pekka Salonen, known for his brilliant interpretations of contemporary music, conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta Voices & soloists. This recording comes with full libretto. World-premiere recording of the 1997 version. Based on the theatre piece ‘La Balade du Grand Macabre’ by Michel de Ghelderode, Ligeti’s ‘Le Grand Macabre’ is a surreal, darkly whimsical vision of a modern world – much of the action is set in a place called Breughelland – that is approaching apocalypse. The libretto is by the composer & Michael Meschke (the great puppet theatre expert). The opera had its world premiere in Stockholm in 1978, but Ligeti made a number of revisions to the score over the next two decades. A final revised version had its premiere at the 1997 Salzburg Festival, in a production staged by Peter Sellars, which was later presented at the Theatre du Chatelet in February 1998, when this recording was made.
