Stimmung CD Reviews
01.02.08, FANFARE
STIMMUNG, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807408
"With Paul Hillier, it's in the best of hands, and first of all one needs to salute both this sensitive, scrupulous performance, and the splendid SACD sound. The whole production is a
knockout...having such an exceptional rendition here can only give the piece a leg up for a further life."
- Robert Carl
10.01.08, AUDIOPHILE AUDITION
STIMMUNG, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807408
“You’ll never experience a more mind-blowing rendition of this classic. Highly recommended.”
**** – Tom Gibbs
02.01.08, LA WEEKLY
STIMMUNG, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807408
“This new version is a wonderful disc.”
– Alan Rich, LA WEEKLY
01.12.07, GRAMOPHONE
STIMMUNG, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807408
EDITOR’S CHOICE
"A thrilling and important performance–possibly the CD highlight of 2007."
– Philip Clark, GRAMOPHONE (Awards issue 2007)
01.11.07, THE ABSOLUTE SOUND
STIMMUNG, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807408
This performance by Theatre of Voices can only be described as virtuosic."
– Andrew Quint
01.10.07, INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW
STIMMUNG, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807408
“Under the direction of Paul Hillier, Theatre of Voices is an extraordinary ensemble…Among the real virtues of the performance are a fine sense of pulse and a strong grasp of rhythmic structure; the rhythms of the fabulously changing wordplay patterns are beautifully weighted, as if this were the music of some celestial dance… Theatre of Voices succeeds in making the overtones luminously present,, with the effect that the listener is drawn into a magical…realm of overtone melody. “
- Christopher Ballantine
01.10.07, BBC Music Magazine
STIMMUNG, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807408
Performance: ***** / Sound: *****
“In this new edition, Hillier has succeeded triumphantly. For once, surround-sound is more than a gimmick, since Stockhausen is one of the handful of composers in whose music placement and movement of sound is of the essence.”
– Barry Witherden, BBC Music Magazine
20.09.07, The Wall Street Journal
By GREG SANDOW
Many people wouldn't find this very promising. Six singers sit in a circle and for more than an hour chant the notes of a single chord. To be more precise, they chant a B flat ninth chord, which at least is more tangy than simple B flat. But still -- more than an hour with only one chord.
There's yet another dimension, though, that takes this music into the realm of science or metaphysics. The singers aren't really singing a chord. Instead, they're intoning a low B flat and six of its overtones, overtones being . . . well, how can I explain this? Sing or play any note, and nature generates other notes above or around or inside it. These are the overtones. They're always present, but not always tangibly audible -- except that the music I'm talking about makes them audible, bringing them front and center. (They generate the ninth chord.)
But now I fear I've made this music sound more abstract than it really is. The piece I'm talking about is "Stimmung," a 1968 composition by the lost star of the classical-music avant-garde, Karlheinz Stockhausen. I call him the lost star because in the '50s and '60s he and Pierre Boulez jointly ruled European avant-garde composing. Up through the '70s, the prestigious classical record label Deutsche Grammophon recorded every note he wrote.
But then Boulez ascended into something like classical-music sainthood, and Mr. Stockhausen more or less disappeared. He wrote a piece that was to be conducted telepathically, and another that he said was given to him by beings from another planet. Later on he launched a series of seven large operas, which proved too gigantic a project for the classical-music world to swallow. Finally he took the recordings of his music back from Deutsche Grammophon and made them available (at exalted prices) only through his Web site, which isn't even set up for online sales. You have to mail a check to him in Germany.
Thus he made himself obscure. But his music still can be performed, and a new "Stimmung" recording by Paul Hillier and the Theatre of Voices, just released on the Harmonia Mundi label, made me celebrate the man and wish that at age 79 he could have a comeback. This is actually the third recording of the piece; Mr. Stockhausen himself produced the first in 1970, and there was another in 1986 by a group called Singcircle, which shows the music has some life. Stimmung can mean "tuning," "mood," or "atmosphere," and it is closely tied to stimme, the German word for voice.
I'm sure not everyone would love the piece, but it rested, charmed and fascinated me. Sometimes the sound seems absolutely still. But then something happens, and the music gets active. New things happen all the time; that's one reason I found myself listening with such great happiness. Sometimes the new things are really zany, like a voice singing nonsense sounds over and over, faster and faster, higher and higher, till it's just a squeak.
Which means that there's more than just the B flat ninth chord. Rather crazily, Mr. Stockhausen asks the singers to intone the "magic names" (his words) of various gods ("Ahura-mazda!" "Vishnu!"), or sometimes the names of the days of the week. Sometimes they intone Mr. Stockhausen's own erotic poetry, mostly in German. And the overtones do more than just produce the B flat ninth. Each time they sing any note at all, the singers have to produce specific overtones, which they do by changing the shape of their mouths. This sounds as if they're singing many vowels -- a, e, i, o, u, but with oddball nasal resonance.
All this isn't as nutty as it sounds. These instructions generate the new things that keep on happening, which in fact the singers choose completely on their own. All Mr. Stockhausen provides are possibilities, and an overall scheme in which he divides the music into 51 sections and tells the singers which of them sing in each, and which one takes the lead. So each performance has a lot of spontaneity.
The best of the three recordings, I think, is the Stockhausen original, where the singers sound most relaxed, and most at ease with the overtones, which with quiet rainbow resonance hover all around the notes they sing. But the newest version also drew me in. (I'd avoid the 1986 performance, which sounds too peppy, and not spiritual enough.)
What can you do with this music? You might, quite seriously, try lowering the lights and even burning incense while you listen. "Stimmung" works for meditation. But you could also listen more objectively, perhaps with headphones, with the same delight and concentration that you'd bring to an absorbing book. As the music peacefully unfolds, you'll never guess what's coming next. But I think you'll always be satisfied.
Mr. Sandow, a composer, is writing a book on the future of classical music.
09.09.07, THE SACRAMENTO BEE
STIMMUNG, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807408
“Once in a great while comes a CD of such brilliance that it makes you completely reconsider the work of a composer. On this CD, the 51 pieces are given a stunningly visceral performance by the Copenhagen, Denmark-based Theatre of Voices ensemble under the direction of early music and contemporary vocal conductor Paul Hillier. Some of this music is raw and guttural, some of it roundly shaped and ethereal. And all of it thoroughly thought- provoking.”
- Edward Ortiz
07.09.07, THE BUFFALO NEWS
STIMMUNG, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807408
“One of the greatest masterpieces of late 20th century musical avant-gardism in brilliant and exceedingly rare recorded performance. All performances of it are, by nature, unique. This one, by one of the disc world’s great vocal ensembles, is inspired.”
– Jeffrey Simon
07.09.07, THE SCOTSMAN
STIMMUNG, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807408
“Amazingly, there are many moments in Hillier's version where those mystical qualities ring out with eerie clarity. Indeed, its winning quality lies in the immediacy and distinctiveness of Theatre of Voices' performance.”
– Kenneth Walton
06.09.07, TIME OUT NEW YORK
STIMMUNG, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807408
“They grind down words and tones to almost quantum nothingness, while also setting them loose in a trippy, orgasmic, postmodern (and age-old) cloud of transformation. As in their nowclassic recordings of Pärt and Desprez, Hillier and his forces cover themselves in glory, spinning their own brand of beautiful, terrible, mind-bending magic.”
*****
– Marion Lignana Rosenberg, TIME OUT NEW YORK
03.09.07, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
STIMMUNG, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807408
“The music's infectious beauty combines with the vividness and sensitivity of the performance to create an inviting sound world. Scored for six voices, ‘Stimmung’ is like a summary of the latemodernist landscape, joining chance, minimalist and serial techniques in one blissed-out brew.
The entire piece is restricted to a few notes, the overtones of a fundamental B-flat, and the resulting harmony is endlessly shaded and re-formed into a kaleidoscope of sonic imagery. The singers of Paul Hillier's Theatre of Voices lavish care and dramatic vigor on the music.”
– Joshua Kosman
01.09.07, German media
STIMMUNG, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807408
Experimentell im besten Sinne und zugleich von berückender sinnlicher Unmittelbarkeit. Wer sich ein plastisches Bild von Stockhausens Originalität machen will, findet hier beste Gelegenheit.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
In durchaus guter Stimmung legt man diese CD in den Player, in noch besserer nimmt man sie wieder heraus. … Wenn man sich einmal an die Musik gewöhnt hat, will man sie nicht mehr von sich lassen.
Rheinische Post
Paul Hillier und seinem Theatre of Voices gelingt das stimmakrobatisch so stimmungsvoll, dass die "Stimmung" nach dem Abspielen der CD im Raum bleibt. Ein Stimm-Wunder.
Märkische Allgemeine
Beim Hörer wird durch eine geradezu meditativ süchtig machende Musik große Suggestion ausgelöst.
Die Rheinpfalz
Das ist kompliziert, entfaltet aber eine unmittelbare Wirkung von meditativer Sogkraft. … Vom Theatre of Voices unter Paul Hillier exzellent dargeboten.
Fono Forum
Hilliers Lesart des in seinen Details frei gestaltbaren Notentextes ist eine faszinierende Lektion in Sachen Versunkenheit und Ekstase.
Rondo
Dieses Stück kann man auch rein meditativ hören, sich den Klangschönheiten hingeben, die das Theatre of Voices akustisch in Szene setzt mit höchster Stimmakrobatik und Vokal-Virtuosität.
Hessischer Rundfunk
In Zusammenarbeit mit den sechs Vokalisten des Theatre of Voices ist eine unglaublich intensive Lesart von Stockhausens Markstein entstanden, die beweist, wie jung, frisch und aktuell dieses Werk auch heute noch ist.
Klassik.com
Die meditative, vokal makellose Darstellung entspricht Hilliers auf eher weiche, abgerundete Stimmverschmelzungen angelegtem Interpretationsansatz, den er auch in der Alten Musik so bestechend kultiviert hat. Die sechs Ausführenden agieren mit dem Gespür eines Streichsextetts.
Musikansich.de