Here is the beginning of Helmut Lachenmann’s notes to his 1982-84 work Movement (- before paralysis): “A music of dead movements, almost of final quivers, the pseudo-activity of which consists of nothing more than rubble from emptied–pointed, triolic, motor–rhythms displaying an inner paralysis that precede external appearance.” Well, in this case, the death throes (if that’s what they are) continue for 22 minutes, and strangely there is a lot of movement within this work to communicate stasis. Let’s leave aside Lachenmann’s conceptual declarations for a moment–if we can–and examine what’s here to hear. His fine players create sounds that are by no means new (burring trills in the winds, below-the-bridge pizzicatos for the strings, etc.) nor terribly exciting in their use. The same holds true for the other three works, although Two Moments features Lachenmann speaking nonsense fragments of speech, and Consolation I and II combines the shimmering voices of SCHOLA HEIDELBERG with the instrumentalists of ensemble aisthesis. (Can’t anyone stave off the urge to play with capitalization these days?) This disc is not unlistenable, but it’s frustrating nonetheless: not only is Lachenmann’s sound and musical language not new, but he has stuck to it stubbornly for decades (this disc spans works written between 1967 and 1992). Superbly recorded with crystalline fidelity, but definitely for the curious only.
