Atmospheres (1961) for Large Orchestra/ Lontano (1967) for Large Orchestra/ in "Wien Mo

AMG Review of Atmospheres (1961) for Large Orchestra/ Lontano (1967) for Large Orchestra/ in "Wien Mo

"Blue" Gene Tyranny
All Music Guide

Performed by the Vienna Philharmonic and conducted by Claudio Abbado, transparent washes of neo-impressionistic colors paint inter-dimensional landscapes in this evocative piece. Composed in 1961, Atmosphéres for Large Orchestra is in the radical tradition (not a contradiction) of sustained-surface compositions (perhaps beginning with Schönberg's "Summer Morning by a Lake" from the Five Pieces for Orchestra, or the opening of Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe). The beginning of the piece involves a quiet but huge chromatic cluster covering over five octaves of the orchestra; from this cluster sections eventually fall out leaving masses of natural notes (scale clusters) only or sharp/flat notes (pentatonics) only. Among the sounds are: shimmering rapid vibrato, multiple high glissandi, waves of string harmonics in different meters, notes moving along the same path but at varying speeds from each other (like a celestial highway), and the sound of breathing only through brass instruments (without producing tones). Like Ligeti's Lux aeterna, parts of this composition were also used in Stanley Kubrick's famous movie 2001. Composed in 1967, Lontano for Large Orchestra depicts the opening and closing of "a window on long submerged dream worlds of childhood" (Ligeti).