Chamber music from the period between 1968 and 1982 reveals Ligeti once again working with conventional instruments, a development that is particularly impressive with the old-fashioned harpsichord and the Continuum entrusted to it. The piece has an unreal opalescence, literally whirring and flickering. Sheets of sound transform threateningly – quite unlike the more grounded, Hungarian-tinged pieces. The works for piano duo suddenly present a standard theme of painting as a musical subject: the self-portrait! The full title of the composition translates as "Self-portrait with Reich and Riley (and Chopin is in there too)." Ligeti does not deny the irony here. In his Trio, obstinately enough, he does not assemble a classical set of instruments but instead includes representatives of different "families," juxtaposed more or less irreconcilably: violin, horn, and piano.
Outstanding performers.