Mauricio Kagel is never a composer to be taken at face value, and this new disc confirms that an artistic subtext – musical or otherwise – lies behind even his most abstract works.

When it appeared in 1985, the Trio in Three Movements raised eyebrows: why would Kagel be tackling so Classical a genre as the piano trio? In reality, the succession of sonata-, scherzo- and rondo-type movements follows no direct precedent. Kagel’s previous major work was the ‘music epic’ Oral Treason, and the Trio is an instrumental counterpart every bit as subversive of conventions. Earlier recordings have tended to play it as a ‘straight’ chamber work gone wrong, but the Schönberg Ensemble are fully alive to its expressive ambiguities. Such passages as the gentle playing onto piano strings in the first movement (6'06"), or the second movement’s oddly Shostakovich-like combination of violin and piano in rhythmic unison against wistful cello (3'55") are just two of the striking inventions that give the piece its capacity to provoke and intrigue.

Likewise Schwarzes Madrigal (1999), though here the range of expression – at times whimsical, at others menacing – is more evidently akin to Kagel’s theatrical works. In his booklet note, the composer points out that African rhythmic and melodic patterns are not so much imitated as alluded to – which, in conjunction with the German text, gives the piece a distinctly European ambience. Two percussionists point up the articulation of the often intricate choral writing, while solo trumpet and tuba comment on proceedings from an ironic remove. A persuasive performance from the Berlin Radio Chorus and Simon Halsey. Those who’ve discovered Kagel through the excellent portrait CD on Col legno (7/00) should certainly make this disc their next port of call.