Taking Stockhausen


Good to see the Guardian waxing lyrically about the London Southbank Centre's forthcoming tribute to Karlheinz Stockhausen. But it wasn't always so. In 2001 the Barbican presented a Stockhausen mini-festival. Writing in the Guardian in the same year Andrew Clements found the event "too depressing for words" while over on the Observer his colleague Sean O'Hagan concluded that Stockhausen was "someone who is constantly referred to, but seldom listened to. On this hearing it is not difficult to see why."

More Andrew Clements invective here, here and here. Perhaps Stockhausen's posthumous popularity is just part of a dream?
Is Pierre explaining to Karlheinz that he should never believe the critics? Photo shows Stockhausen left with Boulez in 1963 at Donaueschingen, credit G. W. Baruch. Source of quotes is The Life and Music of Sir Malcolm Arnold by Paul R.W. Jackson (ISBN 189283810) page 216/7. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

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