MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW



Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Sound Samples and Downloads

Karlheinz STOCKHAUSEN (1928-2007)
Mantra, Work No. 32 (1970) [67:33]
Pestova/Meyer Piano Duo: Xenia Pestova and Pascal Meyers (pianos), Jan Panis (electronics)
rec. Espace Découverte, Philharmonie Luxembourg, 7-10 September 2009. DDD
NAXOS 8.572398 [67:33]

Experience Classicsonline

This disc will appeal to those with an open mind. If you are used to the Stockhausen of Gruppen, his work for three orchestras or Stimmung, his vocal tour de force, this will seem more organized and easier to grasp.

As Andrew Lewis states in his excellent notes in the CD booklet, Mantra is the first mature example of the composer’s “formula” technique. This technique, more structured and quasi-serialist, was to dominate his oeuvre for the rest of his life. The work is continuous, but the disc is divided into 26 tracks totaling 887 bars of music. The scoring makes interesting and novel use of percussion and electronics as well as electronically transformed piano sounds reminiscent of John Cage’s prepared piano, in addition to those of a normal piano — or in this instance piano duo. At times the work seems almost minimalist with its repetitions, but there is much more variety in Mantra than one associates with the products of Minimalism. The contrasts between the almost static and the dynamic are very telling. There is also some vocal intervention. While the work is rather long, it has enough variety and no little humor to hold one’s attention throughout its 67 minutes. The vocal “howl” in track 20 especially provides some comic relief.

Without access to a score or another recording with which to compare, I find it hard to make a judgment on the performance. However, it sounds convincing to me. The pianists have technique to burn and the recording meshes the electronics with the pianos seamlessly. However, this work really needs to be seen as well as heard, with the two pianists facing each other. The recorded sound itself leaves nothing to be desired. While I don’t know how often I will listen to Mantra, I can state that it is interesting enough that I will want to get to know it better. For a more detailed analysis of the work and its genesis, see Mark Sealey’s review on this website.

Based on the foregoing, I commend this disc to Stockhausen fans and to anyone curious about the 1970s avant-garde.

Leslie Wright


See also review by Mark Sealey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.