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Lachenmann the NUN

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Artistic Quality:

Sound Quality:

This release features borderline unlistenable pieces coupled with befuddling, pretentious liner notes. NUN, an orchestral piece with soloists and chorus, is a single sexless throb that clocks in at just under 40 minutes. There are some spiky flute riffs, and the trombone does get the distinct pleasure of belching out some genuinely ugly sounds from the depths of the instrument, but it’s all noise and no action. It’s even hard to tell if the group plays well or not–undoubtedly this score is extremely complex, and Jonathan Nott seems to have the WDR Sinfonieorchester under control, but then again who can be sure? Notturno (music for Julia) is a dull study, scored for cello and orchestra, that explores the play of sound against silence, with a certain amount of improvisational latitude allowed the performers. According to the notes we are supposed to be impressed at how long it took for this piece to be composed, and apparently this is something of a watershed work in Lachenmann’s oeuvre. Still, the result is determinedly, uncompromisingly unmusical. Occasionally an interesting sound or texture is achieved, but the lack of activity kills any chance for momentum.

The self-aggrandizing and lofty liner notes are the real star of this disc. Lachenmann is allowed due space to embarrass himself with faux-intellectual hoopla such as: “The ego is not a thing, but a place”; or “NUN is the attempt to create a kind of presence. Not music that continues, no discursive text. Music as a situation.” The annotator opens with the sentence: “It may be a surprise that Helmut Lachenmann, who persistently concentrated on bourgeois cultural industry in Europe with keen intellectuality and targeted injurious polemics, should, of all things, quote the Japanese philosopher Kitaro Nishida.” All of this smacks of an attempt to create a mythology around an artist, to loudly shout his credibility as an apologia for uninteresting work. The notes may in fact reassure (or bully) a few listeners afraid to dislike this music; but if you really do hate it, don’t worry–be confident that your ear and intellect are intact.

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Recording Details:

Reference Recording: none

HELMUT LACHENMANN - NUN; Notturno (Musik für Julia)

  • Record Label: Kairos - 12142
  • Medium: CD

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