Sternklang - Original 1976 German Deutsche Gramophon label 2LP Set

Rare 1976 Deutsche Grammophon label 2LP set featuring German composers work for 21 singers and/or instrumentalists divided into five groups - to be performer outdoors at spatially widely separated locations - divided ca. 70 m but not so far that the musicians cannot hear each other.
The work was conceived in 1969 but composed two years later - commissioned by Sender Freies Berlin. The first performance took place from 8:30 to 11:30pm on 5 June 1971, at the Englischer Garten of the Tiergarten, Berlin.
This recording is from June 24 - 26, 1975, at the Studio des Dames, Paris - just shortly after the ?Sternklang? was performed at Parc de Saint Cloud in Paris-St. Cloud (20 and 22 June 1975).

?The sounds from each performer is separately amplified and projected over loudspeakers. "Sound runners" transport musical "models" from one group to another, while a percussionist stationed at a central position helps synchronise the groups to common tempos at ten points in the piece?*.

The piece has been described as "a twilight fantasy ? an extended outdoor Stimmung"**. From a technical point of view, it tackles and solves the problem of coordinating independent harmonic groups***.

The rhythms, tone colours, and pitch intervals in the "models" are directly derived from star constellations observed in the sky and integrated as musical figures*. The work creates a sense of "non-progressive or circular time by blurring complex relationships between pitch and rhythm based on the overtone series so that the structure is perceived as inexhaustible and thus appears static"

Vinyls have the generic yellow company labels woth small top tulip logo - above company name and mid-information grid. Labels has straight borders and vinyl is housed in an outer laminated gatefold picture cover.

Condition: 2xVG++ (Vinyl and Labels)/VG+(+) (Cover)
Vinyls are supremely bright and shiny - Side 1, 2 and 4 are mint - Side 3 has a single inaudible line and is graded near mint.
Side 1, 3 & 4 labels are plainmint, Side 2 label has a single hardly visible, short and superficial spineltrace in the immediate vicinity of center hole - graded near mint.
Vinyls are overall graded near mint.
Cover has perfect front and back centers - a little wrinkling from edges and in spine corner regions? a little pressure to top front-panel. Mint inner spread. Cover is overall graded at least close to near mint/excellent - VG+(+).

Tracklisting:

Parkmusik Für 5 Gruppen (1969-1971)

Side 1:
1 Sternklang I 34:35

Side 2:
1 Sternklang II (Erste Fortsetzung) 30:35

Side 3:
1 Sternklang III (Zweite Fortsetzung) 33:56

Side 4:
1 Sternklang IV (Schluß) 31:29

Recorded 24. - 26. 6. 1975, Studio des Dames, Paris
Cover printed by Münstermann-Druck KG

Credits:
Karlheintz Stockhausen - Composer, Einstudierung, Klangregie

Musicians:
Group 1 (Intermodulation):
Peter Britton - synthesizer
Tim Souster - electric viola with synthesizer
Robin Thompson - bassoon with synthesizer
Roger Smalley - synthesizer

Group 2:
Annette Meriweather - soprano
Wolfgang König - trombone with synthesizer
Hans-Alderich Billig - bass
Harald Bojé - electronium

Group 3:
Helga Hamm-Albrecht - mezzo-soprano
Wolfgang Fromme, Helmut Clemens - tenor
Peter Sommer - trombone with synthesizer

Group 4 (Gentle Fire):
Stuart Jones - violin with synthesizer
Hugh Davies - clarinet with synthesizer
Graham Hearn - synthesizer
Michael Robinson - cello with synthesizer

Group 5:
Markus Stockhausen - trumpet with synthesizer
Suzanne Stephens - clarinet with synthesizer
Atsuko Iwami - alto voice and recorder
Michael Vetter - bass and recorder
Richard Bernas - percussion (from Gentle Fire)

Technical Credits:
Dr. Rudolf Werner - Production, Recording Supervisor
Klaus Hiemann - Recording Engineer
Karlheintz Stockhausen - Mix
Joachim Krist - Coordinator
Artwork:
Georg Christoph Eimmart - Front Cover Illustration
Suzanne Stephens - English Translation of Sleeve Notes
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Sleeve Notes

* Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1978. "Sternklang, Parkmusik für 5 Gruppen (1971)". In his Texte zur Musik 4, edited by Christoph von Blumröder, 170-80. DuMont Dokumente. Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg. ISBN 3-7701-0493-5.
**Griffiths, Paul. 1974a. "Stockhausen in the Autumn". The Times (25 July): 13.
***Maconie, Robin. 2005. Other Planets: The Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Lanham, Maryland, Toronto, Oxford: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 0-8108-5356-6.