HELMUT LACHENMANN (b.1935): Salut für Caudwell for 2 Guitarists, Les Consolations for 16 Voices and Orchestra (Wilhelm Bruck, Theodor Ross [guitars], Schola Heidelberg, Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra; Johannes Kalitzke), Concertini for Ensemble (Klangforum Wien; Kalitzke).

Description: mirers of Lachenmann's boldly uncompromising modernism will know exactly what to expect of his Consolations, textually based on the H.C. Andersen story of The Little Match Girl. The text is broken down into phonetic fragments, juxtaposed and overlapping and freed of contextual meaning, which become part of the texture of Lachenmann's characteristic collage of instrumental sounds, extended and conventional. The work for two guitars likewise takes the instrument out of its familiar context with an expanded vocabulary of playing techniques and sounds, including vocalizations by the players. The recent (2004) Concertini intriguingly expands the idea of 'concertante' music by allotting a concertante rôle to conceptual soloists, such as resonance, spatial movement, noise sounds produced by scraping or percussion on instrument bodies, and so on. The ensemble context into which such soloistic excursions - along with more conventional ones highlighting members of the ensemble - is a richly varied example of Lachenmann's instrumental musique concrète', against which the 'concertante' layering of material stands out in striking relief. 2 CDs.