Donnerstag Aus Licht - Original 1983 German Deutsche Grammophon label 4LP Box

Rare original 1983 Deutsche Grammophon 4LP set featuring the 'Donnerstag' part of Stockhausen's Licht heptolagy - 'a sprawling opera cycle drawn from various religious mythologies, particularly the Urantia Book, a collection of writings supposedly delivered to Earth by extraterrestrials.'

The opera is in three movements and was originally performed at various venues in Germany and France from spring 1980 to early winter 1982.

Recordings features Stockhausen himself, Peter Eötvös and Herbert Schernus conducting the West German Radio Chorus and Orchestra, the Hilversum Radio Chorus, the Ensemble Intercontemporain.

Vinyl has the generic yellow company labels with circular - straight - white line close to label perimeter - and tulip-setup logo just above blue & white outline company name and centre hole.

Vinyls comes complete with 22-page 12" x 12" booklet with credits, data, synopsis and pictures from the performances - everything packed in a 12" x 12" x 1/2" hard card picture case hinged at left side.

Condition: 4xVG++ - M- (Vinyl and Labels)VG+(+) (Booklet)/VG++ (Box):

Vinyls are superlustrous and either mint or extremely close to mint.
Labels are mostly mint - a couple of labels has a single - max two - light, simple and superficial spindletraces - suggesting that this copy has been tried on... not played frequently and with care and caution when so.

Vinyls are graded near mint and mint.

Booklet has a series of lower right front production imperfections - looking like a series of glossy drops of coating which are either dried up or they have glued to the surface of the adjacent booklet in the printing process - leaving a very few tiny areas affected - otherwise a very close to mint booklet - graded close to near mint/excellent.

Box is plain close to perfect with a touch of superficial creasing and just a little lower opening corners rubbing.

Tracklisting:

Donnerstag Aus Licht
1. Akt: Michaels Jugend (64:00)

Side 1:
1. 1. Szene: Kindheit 31:20

Side 2:
1. 2. Szene: Mondeva / 3. Szene: Examen 32:40


2. Akt: Michaels Reise Um Die Erde (49:46)

Side 3:
1. 2. Akt: Michaels Reise Um Die Erde 26:49

Side 4:
1. 2. Akt: Michaels Reise Um Die Erde (Fortsetzung) 22:57


3. Akt: Michaels Heimkehr (89:55)

Side 5:
1. 1. Szene: Festival 25:20

Side 6:
1. 1. Szene: Festival (Fortsetzung) 25:40

Side 7:
1. 2. Szene: Vision 29:55

Side 8:
1. Donnerstags-Gruss 11:04
2. Donnerstags-Abschied 11:44

Performance data:
1. Akt recorded May 23 to 26, 1980, at WDR Cologne.
2. Akt recorded November 6 & 7th, 1980, at IRCAM Paris.
3. Akt, 1. Szene recorded June 11 & 12th, 1980, at NOS-Studio Hilversum.
3. Akt, 2. Szene recorded October 5 & 6th, 1981, at Sound Studio N, Cologne-Bickendorf.
Donnerstags-Gruss recorded November 24 & 25th, 1981, at WDR Cologne.
Donnerstags-Abschied recorded January 23rd, 1982, at DGG-Studio, Hamburg-Tonndorf.

Credits:
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Composer, Conductor, Sound Engineer
Peter Eötvös - Conductor, hammond Organ
Herbert Schernus - Conductor (Invisible Choir - Tape Recordding Of Chorus WDR Rundfunkchor Köln)

Ensemble Freies Bläser- Und Schlagzeugensemble
Rundfunkchor Hilversum Chorus
Rundfunkorchester Hilversum
Ensemble Intercontemporain
Chorus WDR Rundfunkchor Köln

Robert Gambill - Tenor Vocals
Paul Sperry - Tenor Vocals
Michael Angel - Tenor Vocals
Matthias Hölle - Bass Vocals
Annette Meriweather - Soprano Vocals

Mark Tezak - Trombone
Markus Stockhausen - Trumpet
Suzanne Stephens - Basset Horn
Michel Arrignon - Clarinet, Basset Horn
Alain Damiens - Clarinet
Barbara Kamienska - Horns
Marcie McGaughey - Horns
David Nikke - Trombone
Peter Kertzner - Trumpet
Reinhold Friedrich - Trumpet
Hugo Read - Soprano Saxophone
Simon Stockhausen - Soprano Saxophone
Ulrich Haas - Tuba

Majella Stockhausen - Piano
Wolfgang Hoyer - Piano

Martin Schulz - Percussion
Robyn Schulkovsky - Percussion
Rumi Ogawa - Percussion

Alain Louafi - Narrator, Dance
Elizabeth Clarke - Narrator, Dance
Michèle Noiret - Dance

Engineering - Dr. Rudolf Werner, Frank Lipp, Klaus Hiemann, Günther Kasper , Kees Van Der Gragt, Paul Fleck
Technicians - Günther Engels, Volker Müller, Wolf-Dieter Karwatky