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» RADELESCU, HORATIU: Piano Sonatas and String Quartets

RADELESCU, HORATIU: Piano Sonatas and String Quartets
RADELESCU, HORATIU: Piano Sonatas and String Quartets
A great maverick, one-off and seldom heard composer, Horatiu Radelescu was born and studied in Romania before moving to Paris in 1969. Once in Europe he continued to study (with Cage, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Ferrari, Kagel and Messiaen, without deviating from his own path), which was to create a music in constant flux and becoming, built from the largely repressed complexities of the natural harmonic series (Messiaen called him ‘one of the most original young musicians of our time’). Early pieces already featured what he called ‘icons’, single and multiple grand pianos tipped on their sides, retuned and played with rosined thread; and multiples (9 cellos, 43 gongs, 9 orchestras, 7 psalteries &c). Since special techniques were required for many of his pieces, he formed his own ensemble to play them (see probes 5 and 8 for more). These later pieces, however, were composed for more standard Western configurations: solo piano and string quartet. Both piano sonatas are interesting and explore unusual avenues, but it is the 30-minute string quartet that glows, indeed at times approaches the sublime [just don’t play it too quietly]. There is strength of ideas and an aesthetic consistency here that is much too rare today.

Code: MODE 290
Price: £14.50