MAURICIO KAGEL (b.1931): Quinius' Liebeskuss for Vocal Ensemble and Instruments, Serenade for 3 Players, Double Sextet for Instrumental Ensemble.

Description: Quirinus' Liebeskuss originated in an experimental idea that Kagel had to assemble single-syllable words into a kind of text, during which process he was surprised to chance upon poetry by Quirinus Kuhlmann (1651 - 1689), already written in this vocal-pointillistic style (or so the story goes; with Kagel one sometimes suspects that the story of the origination of the works constitutes a piece of performance art in its own right). The fragmentary texts is set in a matrix of continuous instrumental texture with a well-defined rhythmic and harmonic structure. The Serenade is a kind of lighthearted 'cut-up' of the idea of sexrenades - open-air textures, earnest sweetness on the part of the performers (with some 'amateurish' playing a là Mozart's Musical Joke). Ultimately, an entertaining divertimento and a satisfying piece of music in its own right. The piece here that demonstrates most clearly Kagel's credentials as a 'legitimate' composer - as opposed to experimenter and sometime musical clown - is the disciplined and organic Double Sextet, which shares the structured continuity of the ensemble music from "Quirinus' Liebeskuss" in a work that hints here and there at Mahler, or Bartók, or Schönberg and ends up sounding unmistakably like Kagel. Schönberg Ensemble, Netherlands Chamber Choir; Reinbert de Leeuw.