Stop/Ylem

AMG Review of Stop/Ylem

Dan Warburton
All Music Guide

Stop, an ensemble work originally written in 1965 but here in a version specially conceived in 1973 for the London Sinfonietta, is a fine example of how German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen subtly loosened the straightjacket of his earlier rigorous serial composition to allow a breath of fresh air from across the Atlantic -- in the form of "noise" -- to flow in. Performed with incomparable brilliance by the Sinfonietta under the watchful eye and baton of the composer, Stop is, at one and the same time, uncompromisingly experimental in its aesthetic and viscerally engaging. Ylem, which dates from 1972, is what happened when the composer broke through to the other side of the wall by abandoning traditional notation in favor of "intuitive," even "telepathic" (i.e. improvised) procedures. Conceived as a musical and theatrical metaphor for the expanding and contracting of the universe (no less!), the piece starts out with all 19 instrumentalists clustered around the piano for an opening "big bang" which sends them out individually into and beyond the concert hall. They subsequently return for another explosion, only to disperse again, the work ending when all the musicians are effectively out of earshot. Like many of Stockhausen's concepts, it's laughably simple on paper, but stunningly effective when heard.