Playlist »LE GRAND MACABRE«
For the first performance of this avant-garde classic at the Vienna State Opera, the playlist contains selected scenes of the work in two versions each: the Vienna production of the German-language first version from 1978, which was created in 1991 with the ORF Symphony Orchestra under Elgar Howarth, in direct comparison with the English-language version that Ligeti created for performances at the 1997 Salzburg Festival, which differs significantly from the original: originally spoken scenes were composed out, instrumental colors refined, and overly vulgar text passages deleted. This new version, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, was given and recorded with the same cast at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 1998.