London Symphony Orchestra | Orchestra of the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY | Rattle | Pintscher | Ward

Twice is better than once – that holds true indeed for the complex scores of the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Yet it is not just for that reason that you can hear Karlheinz Stockhausen’s trail-blazing GRUPPEN two times in one evening, but also because the work, which was premiered in 1958 in Cologne, is designed as spatial music. Three orchestras, totaling 109 musicians, surround the audience in a horseshoe configuration. They “play – each under its own conductor – sometimes independently and in different tempi; from time to time they meet in a common audible rhythm; they may call to and answer one another; one may echo another; for a while only music from the left, from the front, or from the right may be heard,” explained the composer. It is therefore very stimulating to hear Stockhausen’s GRUPPEN twice in a row, each time from a different auditory perspective. Between the two performances, two other key works of new music by Olivier Messiaen and Luigi Nono will be played in the main concert hall of the KKL Luzern (see Symphony Concert 24).