MASTERWORKS

Sony Classical proudly announces an uncommonly attractive new batch of reissues from the CBS/Sony and RCA Victor/BMG back catalogues. This latest installment of the popular series showcases the reissue of a path-breaking composer edition as well as recordings by some of the labels’ greatest artists of the last half century. Included in this batch are nine albums dedicated to one of the indisputable geniuses of modern music.

Sony Classical’s landmark “Ligeti Edition”, recorded under the great Hungarian composer’s supervision and first released on single albums in 1996, will now be available internationally in a complete set. This famous project needs little additional commentary. Fanfare called it “a must for any collector or interested listener”. Enough to say that it features such authoritative interpreters of the composer’s endlessly fascinating works as Pierre-Laurent Aimard playing the staggeringly difficult and beautiful Études and other piano works, the Arditti Quartet giving benchmark readings of the String Quartets and Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the orchestral works and the definitive recording of Ligeti’s operatic masterpiece Le Grand Macabre, which Gramophone called “the key opera of the end of the twentieth century”. Salonen’s ideally cast recording of the final revised version, sung in English, “is the one to have – Ligeti’s revisions are all improvements, and the performance is a fine one” (Gramophone).

CD 1 · String Quartets & Duets
String Quartet No. 1 “Métamorphoses nocturnes”
String Quartet No. 2 · Hommage à Hilding Rosenberg
Balada˘ ¸si joc · Andante and Allegretto
Arditti String Quartet

CD 2 · A Cappella Choral Works
Éjszaka · Reggel · Idegen földön · Magány
Két kánon · Betlehemi királyok · Bujdosó · Lux aeterna
Lakodalmas · Inaktelki nóták · Mátraszentimrei dalok
Pápainé · 3 Phantasien nach Friedrich Hölderlin
Magyar Etüdök · Haj, ifjúság! · Húsvét · Hortobágy
Magos ko˝sziklának · Kállai ketto˝s
London Sinfonietta Voices · Terry Edwards

CD 3 · Works for Piano
Études pour piano · Musica ricercata
Pierre-Laurent Aimard

CD 4 · Vocal Works
Nonsense Madrigals
The King’s Singers
Mysteries of the Macabre
Sibylle Ehlert · Philharmonia Orchestra · Esa-Pekka Salonen
Aventures · Nouvelles Aventures
Phyllis Bryn-Julson · Rose Taylor · Omar Ebrahim
Philharmonia Orchestra · Esa-Pekka Salonen
Der Sommer
Christiane Oelze · Irina Kataeva
Három Weöres-dal · Öt Arany-dal
Rosemary Hardy · Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Négy lakodalmi tánc
Rosemary Hardy · Eva Wedin · Malena Ernman · Pierre-Laurent Aimard

CD 5 · Mechanical Music
Continuum · Hungarian Rock · Capriccios Nos. 1 & 2
Invention · Musica ricercata
Pierre Charial barrel organ
Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes
Françoise Terrioux metronomes
Études pour piano (exerpt) · Continuum
Jürgen Hocker player pianos

CD 6 · Keyboard Works
Induló · Polifón etüd · Haróm lakodalmi tánc · Sonatina · Allegro
Irina Kataeva & Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano 4 hands
Capriccios Nos. 1 & 2 · Invention
Irina Kataeva piano
3 Pieces for 2 Pianos
Irina Kataeva & Pierre-Laurent Aimard pianos
Passacaglia ungherese · Hungarian Rock (Chaconne) · Continuum
Elisabeth Chojnacka harpsichord
Ricercare – Omaggio a Girolamo Frescobaldi · 2 Studies for Organ · Volumina
Zsigmond Szathmáry organ

CD 7 · Chamber Music
Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano “Hommage à Brahms”
Saschko Gawriloff · Marie-Luise Neunecker · Pierre-Laurent Aimard
10 Pieces for Wind Quintet
6 Bagatelles for Wind Quintet
London Winds
Sonata for Solo Viola
Tabea Zimmermann

CD 8 & 9
Le Grand Macabre
Sibylle Ehlert · Laura Claycomb · Charlotte Hellekant · Jard van Nes
Derek Lee Ragin · Graham Clark · Steven Cole · Richard Suart · Willard White
Frode Olsen · Martin Winkler · Marc Campbell-Griffiths · Michael Lessiter
London Sinfonietta Voices · Philharmonia Orchestra · Esa-Pekka Salonen