MAURICIO KAGEL (1931-2008): Match for 3 Players, General Bass for Continuous Instrumental Sounds, Siegfriedp' for Cello, Unguis incarnatus est for Piano and ..., For us: happy birthday to you! for 4 Cellos, Magic Flutes for 12 Cellos, Motetten for 8 Cellos.

Description: These pieces span forty years, and are united only by the fact that all prominently feature the cello, an instrument that Kagel played, and of which he had an intimate understanding. Otherwise they run the gamut of technique and style, from the very complex and experimental (Match, a highly structured but humorous, playful but thoroughly avant garde competitive 'match' between two cellists, or Siegfriedp, an encyclopaedia of novel extended techniques) to relatively conventional music (General Bass, and the parts of Unguis incarnatus est which are clearly recognisable as a transcription of Liszt). Several pieces are associated with Siegfried Palm - obviously Siegfriedp, but also the warped transcription of Happy Birthday to You. Motetten is an extended composition, covering a wide range of expressive territory, modern but with clear allusions to the past, cross-fading from early music to popular dance to romantic harmonies to twentieth-century modernism to sonorous textures in a manner that sums up a great deal of what Kagel, constantly questing, curious and impossible to categorize, was all about. Christophe Roy, Rohan De Saram (cello), Sylvie Drouin (piano), Jean Charles François (percussion), Ensemble Nomos; Michel Pozmanter.