In 1968, at the height of the libertarian movements, the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, a figurehead of the European avant-garde, returned from a trip to California and Mexico: there he had developed the score of Stimmung, for six singers and six microphones.
From its premier at the Maison de la Radio in Paris, the work captivates with its mesmerizing freedom, breaking away from the complex structuralism of the serialist school: onomatopoeia intertwines with the whispered names of divinities, in a radiant harmonic bath of B flat major and a scenography reminiscent of a hippie campfire.
More than half a century later, Ensemble vocal Oxymore, conducted by Éléonore Le Lamer, is premiering a new version of this unclassifiable and universal work, which reminds us that its composer could be as much a fixture on the programmes of the greatest musical institutions as on a Beatles album cover.
In 1968, at the height of the libertarian movements, the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, a figurehead of the European avant-garde, returned from a trip to California and Mexico: there he had developed the score of Stimmung, for six singers and six microphones.
From its premier at the Maison de la Radio in Paris, the work captivates with its mesmerizing freedom, breaking away from the complex structuralism of the serialist school: onomatopoeia intertwines with the whispered names of divinities, in a radiant harmonic bath of B flat major and a scenography reminiscent of a hippie campfire.
More than half a century later, Ensemble vocal Oxymore, conducted by Éléonore Le Lamer, is premiering a new version of this unclassifiable and universal work, which reminds us that its composer could be as much a fixture on the programmes of the greatest musical institutions as on a Beatles album cover.