"The most familiar works on this terrific recording are probably the two Ligeti pieces, "Atmospheres" and "Lontano." With remarkable sensitivity and subtlety, Claudio Abbado creates sheer magic out of these other-worldly scores. As but one example, listen to the end of "Atmospheres" as the piece gently fades out with the Vienna Philharmonic creating waves of gorgeous, ethereal harmonics.
This is one of the best versions of Boulez's "Notations" -- on par with the composer's own recording. The orchestra mines all the color Boulez asks for in a really exciting performance. The unusual Rihm and Nono works are also quite marvelous, and all the more valuable for being preserved in readings of such high quality -- and the Vienna Youth Choir sounds splendid.
Throughout the recording, the musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic sound completely comfortable -- as if they play these pieces every week, with a technical assurance that will grab your ears immediately. The sound quality is excellent, especially given that the program was culled from live performances. This is an unusual recording for Abbado, and can't be recommended highly enough for those curious about the repertoire."

"Kaija Sarriaho's close association with the avant-garde stems from her studies with Paavo Heininen, and the contacts she established with several like-minded fellow students. In common with Magnus Lindberg, she has cultivated an international outlook, studying in Germany and France, and her links with IRCAM have been particularly important. The use of electronics has been a decisive factor, enabling the composer to explore hitherto unknown nuances of sound. Accordingly, she has placed little reliance on the rhetorical gestures often favoured by the majority of 'advanced' composers.

All items employ some form of electronics, and Petals, for cello and 'live' electronics, gives some idea of the delicate sonorities frequently involved. It is distantly related to Jardin Secret II, where a different repertoire of subde sonorities are derived from the solo harpsichord and combined with some of the human sounds to which Erik A. Nielsen refers in his article for the Mikkelborg CD.

The other four pieces are more ambitious, especially the radiophonic composition, Stilleben. It is less 'abstract' than the other major works, and may even provide a foretaste of Saariaho's forthcoming opera. The other three constitute a sort of trilogy, outlining her development in the use of electronics during the mid 1980s. A visual image is involved in each case, and the starting point is usually a single sound source. Lichtbogen is scored for a smaller ensemble than Verblendungen or Io, but the two versions illustrate the degree of flexibility Saariaho rapidly achieved in the electro-acoustic medium."

"Messiaen's organ works run like a golden thread through his career, from its beginnings right up to its end. They thus offer the best way to trace the development of this remarkable composer's personal musical language. Of course for those who couldn't care less about such things, rest assured that despite their forbidding reputation, these largely meditative pieces contain plenty of immediately attractive, beautiful music. In fact, up until about 1951 when he embraced his own unique sort of 12-note technique (in Livre d'orgue), works such as L'ascension, La Nativité du Seigneur, the very Debussian Apparition de l'Eglise éternelle, Les corps glorieux, and the plainsong-based Messe de la Pentecôte offer little that's more difficult than anything in the now-popular Turangalila-Symphonie or the Quartet for the End of Time (the last movement of which was actually borrowed from the Diptyque for organ). After that, life gets more complicated, but being able to take the pieces in chronological order certainly helps, and it's worth noting that the aforementioned Livre d'orgue is about as purely "difficult" as Messiaen ever got. (...)
Olivier Latry certainly has the chops for this music. Indeed, devotees might even criticize him for an excess of enthusiasm. After all, the one thing the organ can do as can no other instrument is sustain notes at even volume indefinitely, and Messiaen exploits this capability to the fullest. Latry's, though, are generally swift performances. Compare him, for example, to Rudolf Innig (MDG) in Livre du Saint Sacrement, and he's almost uniformly faster by a minute or two in each movement. For some, this inevitably will mean less awe-inspiring grandeur. For others, it will be a blessed relief and mean less aural fatigue over time (and for what it's worth, Latry only requires six very well filled discs rather than most other sets' seven). The relatively rapid speeds do entail a small sacrifice of rhythmic clarity in the most complex passages, such as the two trios in Livre d'orgue, but elsewhere Latry's obvious enjoyment, wonderfully colorful registrations, and consistently shapely articulation certainly reward sustained attention. He's helped by really fine recorded sound, roomy yet present, and completely lacking those irritating mechanical noises that figure so prominently in many other organ recordings. In short, Latry makes this music fall easily and gratefully on the ear, and that in itself is an achievement of the first order."

"This is the album that set my interest in modern Polish composers aflame. The Varsovia Quartet's performance is passioned and daring. The piece showcases the many previously unorthodox playing styles that have come along with this new movement of classical. Are you a fan of Edgar Varese, Gyorgy Ligeti, Kronos Quartet, Sonic Youth or Olivier Messiaen? If so, either you are already familiar with the modern Polish masters or you should be."