Helmut Lachenmann Concert Preview - April 14, 2008

Monday Evening Concerts presents a preview of its April 14, 2008 portrait concert of German composer Helmut Lachenmann. We caught up with Lachenmann and conductor Michel Galante during a percussion rehearsal for the composition Mouvement ( - vor der Erstarrung) in New York City.

Mouvement, along with Ein Kinderspiel and Allegro Sostenuto, will be performed as part of an all-Lachenmann concert in Los Angeles on April 14 at Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School.

More information at: www.mondayeveningconcerts.org

• Category

  Music

[Howard Quin]

wrong! this is music of the highest order.

[jaynogg]

oh yeh and Lachenmann is the man! Met him before a concert before! Legend! He was so modest too, which is a surprise considering how much extraordinary music hes produced!

[MrAlexKeaton]

Reading all the comments below, I have a different theory:

"Emperor With No Clothes."

[Edi Missing]

Jejeje, Solo for slide trombone! Jajaja. You make me smile XD. You know, 4:33 is not about rests, but about silence and the natural resonance of the environment in a concert room. But you're right, Cage didn't have the handicap of being a "serious" composer, so he dares to create a different music. We should be thankful for that.

[parquar]

Nobody that had made the connections/paid their dues to become prominent in the music world at that time otherwise believed seriously in the concept of such a piece to make one themselves. This is generally speaking because I have not the time to have become a modern music expert at all but I'm sure people thought of the concept of a piece with all rests, and it was having the career path to actually want to implement something so out there that took time. His solo for slide trombone lol

[Edi Missing]

And, if anybody could have written "4:33" then, why it was not done before him?

[Edi Missing]

Lachenmann is very different to Cage, cause he was formed in with Nono in a serialist tradition at the Stuttgarter Musikhochschule. He's more a traditional musician compared to Cage. Cage was self-taught, Lachemann follow the old path of the composer, and if he want's to compose "concrete music" (in his own words) and not abstract music like Nono is cause that's what he listen inside, in his mind,

[Edi Missing]

Jejeje! I wouldn't listen yo "4:33" ten times a day. Cage legacy is more about sound and processes more than "notes". His concepts are very creative, and even if you don't like it, he was very structured and concrete. He changes music conceptions and that was very hard in his time. Now, Lachenmann, as you may listen in this interview, wanted a new sound. That was his musical inner search. It has nothing to do with "newness" and, believe it or not, he's a fine trained musician.

[parquar]

His great acclaim comes very much from stylistic trademarks and "newness" as opposed to the rhythms and, where applicable, notes. That is a part of other art more commonly than music, and not something I am particularly inclined to enjoy more. For example, anybody could have written the piece "4:33", but John Cage took up that idea, and it can never be used again legitimately. I wouldn't listen to it 10 times a day because he was so creative in coming up with that because it is silence

[Edi Missing]

Again, you're talking about perception here, and your perception is different to mine. For me, the means of Lachemann's work are just as important as the result. I like the same his music above the "innovative" techniques. I don't have to watch at the score to understand and like the sounds, timbre, polyphony and rhythms he creates. It's all about that. I like the same this music than Schumann or Bach's music cause it's own merits.

[parquar]

sorry I cut out one word. "noble contemporaries", those having musical knowledge but not in depth. That isn't mixing because preparation can also be negative in a given circumstance, which is what I was making a point about with the "contemporaries". It is a logically sound juxtaposition now that I better explained it hopefully.

[Edi Missing]

Then, of course Haendel don't give a composer legitimacy, we were not talking about legitimacy. We were talking about comprehension, preparation and perception. If you want the legitimacy of Lachenmann then you already lose, cause he gain legitimacy probably before you were born cause, in your terms, people who legitimate music this days grant him legitimacy long time ago, whether you like it or not.