laugh man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GGfRVpIUtg
Helmut Lachenmann is one of my favorite living composers. Though his other compositions, especially his String Quartets, are tantalizing, this one may have wormed its way into my heart for now and evermore. And the fact that Wolfgang Behrens calls him the last dinosaur of the modern just makes me feel all giddy. (On a side note: why do Germans -excuse me, German speakers- whenever giving a lecture before a concert, reading, bureaucratic and or grant meeting, ad nauseum ALWAYS quote either: Goethe, Nietzsche, Brecht or Adorno? Maybe the mose avant-garde thing would be to find a quote they ALL use…)
The greatest of all Lachenmann compositions, to my mind, is his Concertini, which I had the pleasure of seeing in Berlin just shy of two years -three years?- ago. While the composition is written in typical Lachenmann fashion -read for: an instrument was invented only so that he could write for the side, the underbelly or the insides of it-, the piece also works spatially, ebbing and flowing from one side of the room -i.e. the stage- to the other -i.e. in the audience. It works a little like that famous Haydn Symphony where amidst the sorts of sounds you expect to hear, a loud thump comes out of nowhere (but this time with the added bonus of being behind you). Truly shocking.
I think the recording can be purchased from col legno with Dolby Digital 5.1. Buy it, close your eyes, and wait for it.
I believe Mills will be doing a concert of his music in January with the old T-Rex in the audience. You can count on me being there.
Originally published at Bit Rate Labor. Please leave any comments there.