Stockhausen-Berio

Marie-Francoise Bucquet - Stockhausen-Berio

Liner notes by Marie-Francoise Bucquet:

KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN (born 1928)

Klavierstück IX (1954): If I tried to persuade someone that music is time experienced through sound I would choose Stockhausen's "Klavierstück IX" as an example. Because the opening chord is played 140 times, because this chord is drenched by its own echo and produces its own halo of sound, because the phenomenon of repetition is no longer relevant here and metrical units have ceased to exist, we are at once compelled to alter our whole way of listening. Technique and interpretation count no longer; one must let oneself become impregnated by this music, feel certain sounds almost viscerally, actively experience silence, sense the flow of time, and ultimately, even fall in love with sound . . . which is, I believe, what Stockhausen expects of his interpreter.

Klavierstück XI (1956): First performed on July 28, 1957, Stockhausen's "Piano Piece XI" shares with Boulez's Third Piano Sonata the historical responsibility of being a musical prototype; one which has been taken up by many composers, and has entered the vocabulary of new music under the name of "multiple form."Taking the example of "Piano Piece XI," Stockhausen himself clarifies his intention as "not just to determine one possible solution for all the moments which occur in the unfolding of a whole, but to propose a number of equally acceptable solutions and to integrate the performer's decision regarding the version of his choice." Let me immediately point out that there are several million possibilities in the performance of this piece. By giving the performer the dangerous weapon of choice, chance is introduced in music. According to his ambitions, his imagination, or his courage the pianist can become either what Stockhausen calls a "co-creator" or else a mere pointsman. Personally I don't see how one can possibly play this piece without being totally involved. Before each performance I feel I am about to embark on an adventure, and my curiosity is not yet satisfied. The most fascinating thing about this work is that its outline changes completely with each performer.

LUCIANO BERIO (born 1925)

Cinque Variazioni (1952-53): This work was revised by Berio in 1966 ... and is recorded here for the first time. The Variations, dedicated to Luigi Dallapiccola and akin to his Quaderno Musicale di Anna Libera, belong to a period during which Berio used the strictest and most disciplined technique of composition. Yet, their spontaneity, instinctive lyricism and subtle sound effects break through the rigid frame. The last variation, extensively altered, in the new version, has a density of expression which reminds us of some of Beethoven's adagios.

Berio still uses here the variation form, but his very use of a traditional form proves how the craftsman within him has complete command over his material. This music is meant above all for the ear which can easily follow its overall design.

Sequenza IV for piano (1966): With the seven sequenze for instrument or solo voice, Berio makes a premeditated incursion into the realm of virtuosity. Sequenze I (for flute), II (for harp), III (for solo voice), IV (for piano), V (for trombone), VI (for viola), and VII (for oboe), were written over a period of eleven years: it is therefore obvious that they illustrate the successive stages of Berio's systematic research in the instrumental field.

Berio has said that the sequenze "can be considered as dramatic essays whose action resides in the relation between the soloist and his own instrument."

Himself a pianist, he exploits here the instrument's potential in a masterly way. Memories of Chopin, Liszt, Scarlatti, and Debussy occur, not at a stylistic level, but rather in a sort of digital genesis. The key structural element in this score is the extensive use of the third petal. Depressed immediately after the chosen note or chord, it isolates and prolongs the sound for a time which is precisely determined by the composer. Berio defines the role of the third pedal by explaining that in "Sequenza IV" "two discourses are superimposed, overlap, and sometimes interpenetrate: a real one (entrusted to the keyboard) and a virtual one (entrusted to the pedal)."

Tracklisting:

1. Klavierstück IX {9:18}

2. Klavierstück XI {14:24}

Side 2

1. Cinque Variazioni {9:06}

2. Sequenza IV {11:35}

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