György Ligeti: Complete Chronological Catalogue & Études Mix

"György Ligeti was one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century. He stood with Boulez, Berio, Stockhausen, and Cage as one of the most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time. His early works show the influence of Bartók and Kodály, and like them, he studied folk music and made transcriptions from folk material. In Apparitions (1958-1959) and Atmosphères (1961), he developed a style forged from chromatic cluster chords that are devoid of conventional melody, pitch and rhythm, but instead grow into timbres and textures that yield new sonic possibilities. The composer referred to this method as "micropolyphony." In Aventures (1962), Ligeti devised a vocal technique in which the singers are required to make a full range of vocalizations, cries and nonsense noises to fashion a kind of imaginary, non-specific drama, but with rather specifically expressed emotions. Ligeti was almost alone among progressive composers from the latter twentieth century who have written popular and widely performed music." AllMusic

This chronological playlist was compiled after the lists of works on Wikipedia, Schott Music, and gyorgy-ligeti.com. It features recordings from the Ligeti Edition (Sony), Ligeti Project (Teldec) and dozens more albums. At the end,I added another set of the 18 Études from 18 different albums, including notable new releases from Yuja Wang, Jeremy Denk, and Pour Irina played by its dedicatee Irina Kataeva.

Get this collection in one the Spotify playlist: György Ligeti: Complete Chronological Catalogue & Études Mix (299 tracks, total time: 16 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. For Ligeti's music used in Kubrick's films, see this previous playlist.