Harp duo Wauters @ Musica Sacra: Stockhausen's Freude
No greater cult composer in the 20th century than German Karlheinz Stockhausen. Known for his bizarre Helicopter String Quartet, his 29-hour opera Licht and many other revolutionary compositions. Freude, one of his last works, he wrote for two harps, as part of the 24-hour cycle Klang. The tuning of the harps, the musicians' playing and singing are so precisely matched that no duo resounds, but rather one breathing, angelic being with two heads and one voice. Freude sounds sublime, incantatory ecstatic, at times fairy-like (From brochure Concertgebouw Brugge 2018).