Best intro CD to Karlheinz Stockhausen's music?

Asked by BronxLens (1539

) August 21st, 2008

Last night I had my (abstract) photography portfolio reviewed by a professor at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Among other observations, he suggested listening to the work of Karlheinz Stockhausen as a departure point to understand better the photography work that lays ahead of me.

Of those familiar with his work, please suggest 2–3 solid CDs that are a good introduction to his most popular work. I’ll leave the more essoteric/complex ones for later (baby steps, you know?), but feel free to suggest those too, just clarify which is which.

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Probably the best introduction to Stockhausen’s work are the 19 Klavierstuck pieces for piano, written throughout his lifetime. The only label I know of that packages all of these pieces together is Stockhausen’s own label, which he founded in the early 1990s. The electronic music he composed for the 1970 Worlds Fair in Osaka (he also designed the spherical venue) is an excellent example of early “space music” which he was developing in parallel with, but independent of Brian Eno. Stockhausen’s label may have recordings of this piece also.

Link to Stockhausen-verlag

Sorry about the long-delayed answer. I didn’t join Fluther until 4 months after you posted this question.

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