Karlheinz Stockhausen

Punkte (Points) is an orchestral work that Karlheinz Stockhausen began in 1952, put aside, and recomposed in 1962. In its first form, finished on 24 October 1952, it was a score of single notes for a small orchestra, and it was never performed. The new version was completed in February 1963 and given its premiere on 20 October 1963 at the Donaueschingen festival by the SWF Orchestra under Pierre Boulez. Stockhausen kept revising it in 1964, 1966 and later, and the engraved score, with corrections made up to 1993, appeared in 1996. This disc offers the final version in a recording made in 2004.

In the recomposed score the points of 1952 hardly ever sound as points. They have become centres for groups and swarms, small organisms of sound spread across the orchestra. The score calls for triple woodwinds, brass, three percussionists, two harps, two pianos and a full string section, and the harps, pianos and double basses are amplified so that the mixing console can place their sound in the hall. Péter Eötvös conducts, and according to the Stockhausenspace listing the orchestra is the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne. The disc also includes an introduction to the work spoken by Stockhausen, in German and English. An earlier version of Punkte, from 1966, can be found on Stockhausen Edition no. 2.

This is Stockhausen Edition no. 81, a single CD from Stockhausen-Verlag in Kürten.