Representing virtually all phases of György Ligeti's mercurial career, the keyboard works on this disc make a fitting résumé. While a number of the pieces here reflect his avant-garde innovations -- chiefly Continuum and Volumina -- others are more accessible and appealing. The Five Pieces for piano four hands (1942-1950) are stylistically similar to music by
Bartók and
Poulenc, imbued with Hungarian color and rhythmic drive but presented with cosmopolitan flair and wit. The two Capriccios and the Invention (1947-1948) are exercises in dissonant counterpoint, yet the transparency of Ligeti's writing makes these pieces fairly easy to digest. Monument, Selbstportrait, and In zart fließender Bewegung (1976) show Ligeti's interest in minimalism, particularly as they move parts in and out of phase and push restricted material to ultimate ends. The harpsichord pieces Passacaglia ungharese and Hungarian Rock (both 1978), fully exploit the instrument's timbral possibilities, while Continuum (1968) is a perpetual-motion etude of illusory pattern-shifting and compelling virtuosity. The Two Studies for Organ (1967-1969) involve transformations of the instrument's sound into clustered washes and static patterns. But Ligeti's most fascinating and daring keyboard work surely must be Volumina (1961-1962), a tour de force of atmospheric clusters and sweeping sonorities notorious for causing the literal meltdown of the organ in Göteborg Cathedral.