Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 06/19/2013, uploaded on 01/27/2014

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

VI.     Allegro molto capriccioso, from Musica Ricercata

Musica Ricercata is a set of eleven pieces for piano composed from 1951 to 1953, shortly after the composer began lecturing at the Budapest Academy of Music. The work premiered in 1969 in Sweden. Although the ricercata (or ricercar) is an established contrapuntal style (and the final movement of the work is in that form), Ligeti's title should probably be interpreted literally as "researched music" or "sought music". This work captures the essence of Ligeti's search to construct his own compositional style ex nihilo, and as such presages many of the more radical directions Ligeti would take in the future.       Jie Yuan

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.