Lux Aeterna

I'm reading the Ligeti biography "Music of the Imagination". Among the many revelations is this: The 1960s 'psychedelic' sounding work "Lux Aeterna" (used in Kubrick's "2001") WAS in fact composed on drugs. Because of an illness Ligeti had become addicted to morphine in this periode, and he was forbidden to walk on the streets by himself because he was too out of it. So he WAS in tune with the sixties after all.

Listen to Lux Aeterna:





I caved in and ordered the new cheap 5 cd box-set, even though I already own two of the cd's. Still cheaper than buying the individual cd's. This box has all the really big weird works for choir and orchestra. Highly recommended!

The story behind this box from Teldec is that Sony originally started out doing the complete Ligeti series. But they weren't able to produce the most complicated orchestral works to the composers satisfaction. So they only did the more simple works for solo piano and the chamber music and stuff like that, on 8 cd's. Then Teldec eventually stepped in and produced the remaining 5 cd's, now released as a set.