Helmut Lachenmann

Hardly any other composer has ever been as far removed from conservatism as Helmut Lachenmann. In all his oeuvre his listeners are never permitted to lean back comfortably even for a moment in expectation of the well-known and familiar. Again and again Lachenmann succeeded, and still succeeds, in shaking the "aesthetic apparatus," the system of conventional formulas and phrases established throughout decades and centuries, to its very foundations. Intérieur I (1966), a piece for percussion solo, reflects the idea of a "multi-layered exploration process of superimposed sequences and the resultant combinations and relations," whereas Schwankungen am Rand (1974/75) in its jagged structure is more about the process of generating sounds than about the "resultant acoustic qualities." In 1968/69 Lachenmann wrote Air, a piece of music for large orchestra and percussion solo, in which he critically caricatures the "ingrained orchestral culinary art," largely avoiding traditional playing techniques and conflicting with conventional listening habits: so, be on your guard at all times. On the whole amazingly exciting, stimulating music that inevitably fascinates its listeners.