Yes Crunchyroll has major issues right now, they are *trying* to restore access we are told.

Original 10 inch vinyl would give it extra context.

The very definition of a slow burner! The orchestra plays unisons on a single pitch at first in up to 60 different dynamics then slow rhythms and after half an hour a melody is revealed with glorious polyphony right at the end! Live performance synchronises the expressive Inori prayer gestures.

I think the composer actually exceeded the 57 varieties of the food company.

After the quality of their output dropped the band was dropped by their label before the new album dropped.

Completely sold out, but you can hear the music boxes at this link.
www.karlheinzstockhausen.org/stockhausen_...

Gemini music box by Karlheinz Stockhausen. One of twelve Zodiac melodies originally composed for music boxes and manufactured by Reuge in Switzerland firstly in 1975 with two subsequent editions.

Which recording was most impressive, tape alone or tape & soloists?

It seems that you need to travel to find particular pieces. Large works by Boulez were programmed in Europe last year, even Boulez’ Pli Selon Pli with its extra percussion cost in London. Medium length Xenakis works have occasional performances near me in recent years. Tech heavy pieces less so.

It is understandably hard to programme adventurous works that require far far more rehearsal time than familiar repertoire, and a typical orchestral budget might reserve whatever sponsored funding they have for a short new commission each season.

I remember when albums being ‘dropped’ meant they were withdrawn rather than released!

DG did release a few Stockhausen CDs thereafter e.g the 1984 opera box set Samstag aus Licht, but the composer stepped in to stop twenty years of music becoming unavailable overnight. Stockhausen also took back most of the CBS masters but new owner Sony have reissued the Kontarsky piano recordings.

It’s quite a good sampler for these pieces, each radically different in sound from all the others. The lengths of each track being several minutes, when even serious arts documentaries seldom dare to give you enough time to listen before the voiceovers return!

DG had an exclusive contract to release Stockhausen’s new LPs up until about 1981. Then abruptly back catalogue went out of print, leading the composer to take out a loan and regain the rights to several dozen recordings and keep the recordings available via remastered CD (if only via mail order).

This is also the first LP in the rarer double album “Greatest Hits” from Polydor.

“I let the sounds be themselves” and “music is organised sounds” are such contrasting quotes. We are lucky they are both such persuasive approaches.

The duet Laub und Regen is “leaves and rain” rather than “sun and rain” originally from Stockhausen’s theatre piece Herbstmusik (autumn music).

As it’s a repeated Trumpism, you’d have to ask the self-proclaimed genius to explain the mathematics involved.

Yes, it’s a lack of intermodulation (running two different sounds through a special circuit to produce an original new sound). Fading tracks up and down in the mix is quick & easy, but the sounds just never control each other in the Beatles track, nor are they shredded and reassembled in new ways.

Montag aus Licht on stage The Staged Productions Compared

open.substack.com/pub/baanaado... Stockhausen Opera Montag aus Licht Balcon La Scala Milan

As for what’s described here as “drones”, the Montag music with ultra slow thematic layers of very harmonically static, almost meditative sounds, reveal the subtle tempi variation, that remove any secure foundation for the listener, but fit the slow watery tides of the themes very appropriately!

An illuminating article emphasising how approachable and enjoyable certain opera’s from Licht can be when given a staged theatrical presentation. Stockhausen’s operas revealed as not only rich and inventive but gifts to creativity where directors fit each dream into a theatrical space.

Montag aus LICHT in Paris Act III The third and final action of Stockhausen’s opera, Montag aus Licht is in two main scenes Botshaft (message) and Der Kinderfänger (The Pied Piper).

substack.com/@baanaado/no... Stockhausen Montag aus Licht Paris

Montag aus Licht in Paris Act II The second act of Stockhausen’s opera Montag aus LICHT is entitled Eva’s Zweitgeburt.

Stockhausen’s Montag aus Licht in Paris. open.substack.com/pub/baanaado...

Montag aus Licht in Paris Act I Act One “Evas Erstgeburt” has a total duration of 95 minutes and consists of 6 scenes which run without a pause.

open.substack.com/pub/baanaado...

Other highlights of Le Balcon’s revival of Montag aus Licht at Paris Philharmonie. The Maiden Procession opening act II stunning with many young singers filling the hall with precise polyphony. Trio of Sopranos and tenors in act one excellent, and the actress Eva (pregnant) fearless in full view.

The long awaited (37 years) revival of Act I of Stockhausen’s Montag aus Licht in Paris magnificent in its musical detail and burlesque complexity. 95 minutes of joy in this production, with all composer’s choreographed ideas.
Lucipolyp tomfoolery more than satirical grotesque but worked well.

The Pied-Piper closing scene in Stockhausen Montag aus Licht was a real tour-de-force; the children surely rising to the achievement of the Hungarian Kodaly trained original performers. The transformation into birds worked well with an earlier exit leaving audience focussed on the CGI Eva-Burg.

The Freudian awakening of the Boy’s sexuality in Act II still a bit awkward; no clear dramatic solution. Symbolically Stockhausen’s 3 basset-teases interact while the CGI projection of Eve is revealed but the adolescent “turn out the lights” demand has the three ladies regulation distanced on stage.