On his new MDG release, Steffen Schleiermacher pays homage to the great Karlheinz Stockhausen, who will turn eighty next year. This pianist specializing in modern music offers new interpretations of Stockhausen's 'Klavierstuck IX,' the most frequently performed work of modern piano music, as well as of 'Tierkreis', together with the clarinetist Volker Hemken. For Stockhausen, the piano was made for experimentation, and it was for this instrument that he wrote his serial compositions. In the transition between extremes and the mediation of them, 'Klavierstuck IX' nevertheless makes a very strong impression. Karlheinz Stockhausen has always had very clear ideas about the way of the world, about the cosmos and his role in it, about his own significance, about music and about esoterism: 'I began occupying myself with the twelve human characters of the zodiac, of which I until then had only a vague notion. While inventing each melody I thought of the nature of children, friends, and acquaintances born under the signs concerned.' 'In Freundschaft' exists for various solo instruments, but Volker Hemken of course presents it in the original version. His wealth of experience as a solo bass clarinetist in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra hardly prepared him for all that Tanze Luzefa holds in store in the way of meowing, purring, smacking, enticing, insisting, and tempting. Howling laughter, vigorous rhythmic clicking, and stamping are also heard.
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