These three Piano Pieces are all satellites of Karlheinz Stockhausen's great work in progress, the seven-opera cycle Licht, whose far-reaching scope and often hieratic atmosphere reverberate through them. The Pieces are played with that blend of dedication, brilliance and control that distinguishes all Bernhard Wambach's Stockhausen recordings. The sound is resonant, even over-reverberant at times, though close-up microphone placement was probably needed to ensure that the more delicate percussive and inside-the-piano effects came across with proper clarity.
At more than 21 and 33 minutes respectively, Pieces XII and XIII are built on grand scales. Piece XII, derived from the ''Examination'' scene of Act I of Donnerstag (1978-80), is often expansive in character, but a sense of ritual prevents analogies with romantic styles, and even romantic harmonies, from achieving more than a subliminal impact. The main romantic association comes from the requirement that the pianist declaim sequences of numbers, a feature making it hard to suppress the incongruous memory of the Wolf's Glen Scene in Weber's Der Freischutz. The performer also whistles extra notes in places, and what could easily have been irritating and banal proves to be touchingly expressive, especially in the Piece's final stages.
Piece XIII comes from scene 1 of Samstag (1981-4), which has the title ''Lucifer's Dream''. Heard apart from the opera it does seem rather long-drawn-out, although its various effects—rapidly repeated notes, glissandos, tremolos and passages in almost diabolically rudimentary style, not to mention considerable vocal contributions from the pianist—are arrestingly idiosyncratic in Stockhausen's most uncompromising manner. By comparison, Piece XIV is a miniature lasting just under 6 minutes, and taken from Act I of Montag (1984). The smaller span promotes a stronger sense of forward movement than is found in the larger structures of the other Pieces. It is an intriguing foretaste of the complete recording of Montag (first performed at La Scala, Milan in 1988) which is—I imagine—in the pipeline.'