Search - Gyorgy Ligeti, Alessio Bax, Lucille Chung :: Lucille Chung Plays Ligeti

An unobjectionable performance of the Etudes, but not up the

Christopher Culver | 07/18/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This Dynamic disc contains a set of piano works by Gyorgy Ligeti performed by the young Canadian pianist Lucille Chung. On the pieces for piano four hands she is accompanied by Alessio Bax. While I am always pleased to see more performances of contemporary music such as Ligeti's, I cannot rate this recording as high as others.



Some of "Five Pieces for Piano Four-Hands" are among the earliest of Ligeti's works, written when the composer was a mere 20 years old. All these early piano pieces are rather immature, a simple exploration of an instrument Ligeti encountered later in life than usual. Some, like "Three Wedding Dances" show much progress, but are rooted in peasant folk rhythms and bear little resemblance to the Ligeti of later years. I am a great fan of Ligeti, but frankly these first piano works are dull. An exception is the "Sonatina", the first two movements of which have rich material later used in Ligeti's first great piano opus "Musica Ricercata".



The disc opens with "Three Pieces for Two Pianos" dating from the mid-1970's. The halting, jerking "Monument" is, I think, the first appearance on this disc of the Ligeti we all know and love. "Selbstportrait mit Reich und Riley (und Chopin ist auch dabei)" is a tribute to the two American minimalist composers and includes a brief allusion to Chopin's music, which Ligeti considers protominimalist. It is indicated to be played "Presto: so schnell und so gleichmaessig wie moeglich", but I do not think that Chung and Bax handle the unforgivingly flowing nature of the piece as, for example, Aimard and Kataeva.



Ligeti's "Etudes pour piano", with two books completed and one in progress at the composer's death, are among the greatest contemporary works for that instrument. And while I am a great fan of Ligeti's micropolyphonic music of the 1960's and his various last concertos, I think that it is the Etudes that will come to be seen as his masterpiece. They are incredibly difficult works for the virtuoso pianist, but they are inventive music as well and two major inspirations can be seen. The first is chaos theory and fractal mathematics, and the second is African polyphony. What makes the Etudes particularly fascinating is that some of them are meant to be too fast for any human pianist, and their definitive versions are for player piano. For some of these player piano renditions one should seek out "Gyorgy Ligeti Edition 5: Mechanical Music". Ligeti's favourite merely human pianist was Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who gives a must-have performance of the first two books on "Gyorgy Ligeti Edition 3: Works for Piano". That performance may be considered definitive.



On this disc the first is performed along with the first four pieces of the third book. Chung's playing of the Etudes occasionally pleases, as on "Fanfares", which she seems to understand intuitively, and "A bout de souffle". However, there are moments which are simply abhorrent, as when in the middle section of "Desordre"--when the pianist is supposed to speed up to a blindingly fast degree--she actually seems to slow down. And never does she really seem to asymptotically approach the speed of the definitive recordings.



All in all, this disc isn't particularly bad--as, for example, Idil Biret's performance of the Etudes on Naxos--but it simply isn't good enough to compete with the best. I suggest getting Pierre-Laurent Aimard's performance of the Etudes in "Gyorgy Ligeti Edition 3: Works for Piano" and discover the technical and witty wonders of this masterpiece (plus Ligeti's early set "Musica Ricercata") with the best rendition around. Ullen's performance is a good second performance to get, as is the combination of Liszt and Ligeti etudes by Gabor Csalog on BMC Records. I cannot particularly recommend this disc unless you are a collector of Ligeti's piano works."

The ultimate Ligeti album

Alex Nick | 10/07/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I do not agree with this review..... I am a musician and studied at depth all of Ligeti's piano works. I came to the conclusion that the Chung recordings are the definitive ones. Sure, Aimard is very convincing and sets the right mood for each piece, but no one comes close to Chung's performances when it comes to really play this music. Ligeti is very specific with what he wants and his demands on the pianist are notoriously outrageous. Chung meets all of them and her interpretation of his music as exact has the composer's inhuman requirements. Therefore you find out that in Chung's version, the textures are much clearer and her playing is much more honest than in Aimard's. It is a very fine line, and Chung walks through it triumphantly. Hence the international success of this disc. Aimard's recording is a benchmark indeed, Chung's passes the test with flying colours and astonishing insight. As far as Ullen's is concerned, I am afraid that in my humble opinion, he is nowhere near either versions. His artificial rendering of the two piano works, recorded in multi-track with himself, kill the purpose of these amazing works. I believe Chung and Bax' recording of the two piano pieces to be by far the ultimate version to date. Their interpretation is incredibly accurate, emotional, satisfying and exciting! Having had the fortune to hear Chung perform Ligeti live (including the whole book 2 of the etudes....by memory!!!), I can easily say she is an amazing artist."