György Ligeti - Le Grand Macabre

Volume 8 of Sony's Ligeti Edition presents the revised score of 1997, taken from live performances in Paris. There are numerous changes and the opera is shorter by some ten minutes. The revision also changes the language from German to English. The German original is available on Wergo in a fine performance. The Sony recording preserves a performance of even greater brilliance of what is now one of the great comic operas in English.

“György Ligeti's only opera, 'Le Grande Macabre,' after a play by Michel de Ghelderode, concerns itself with nothing less than the end of the world. This is promised by the evil Nekrotzar but, despite dire warnings and ominous foreshadowing, the whole thing is something of a bust and in the end the only casualty is Nekrotzar himself. In between are any number of lascivious and criminal goings-on in fictional Breughelland, a place of infinite corruption, socially, morally and politically (and enormously funny in the bargain). Ligeti's brilliant, delightful, infinitely difficult music ranges from preludes and interludes scored for automobile horns and doorbells to the breathtaking coloratura flights of Gepopo, the soprano chief of the secret police. The performance under Esa-Pekka Salonen is beyond praise.”

This is not my rip; it was made about a year ago by mhanna. I checked files with audiochecker and received mixed results: from “This track looks like CDDA with probability 100%“ to “Could not qualify the source of this track”. Nevertheless, these results need to be interpreted with caution due to live performances session.

Links:
http://tinyurl.com/GL-LGM-part1
http://tinyurl.com/GL-LGM-part2
http://tinyurl.com/GL-LGM-part3
http://tinyurl.com/GL-LGM-part4