(Classical, Out Sound) CD

An incredible juxtaposition of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Ludwig Von Beethoven – not interwoven, as in Stockhausen's famous Kurzwellen Mit Beethoven – but offered up side by side, and played beautifully by pianist Pi Hsien Chen! The CD begins with four "Klavierstuck" pieces by Stockhausen, all relatively short, but extremly bold in the way they mix movement with silence – an approach that is then offset by beautiful sounds from Beethoven's "Piano Sonata Op 101" – in four longish movements with a very lyrical feel, but sometimes the same sort of striking elements as Stockhausen's work. "Klavierstuck 5" follows – a longer variation, with very moody, elegiac passages – then followed by the longer Beethoven "Piano Sonata Op 111", before the CD concludes with the 20 minute "Klavierstuck 6". CD

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