Sometimes it takes a while to get into the right mood, atmosphere, circumstance, readiness to write about things you find important. That’s how it is with Stockhausen’s music for me. It takes some calming of worries and sharpening of senses to enter the realm of this contemporary but age-old and timeless spirit, where he enacts his gestures of artistic diligence under a spiritual sky that is clear, always, like the true nature of mind; clean, calm, endless, with the inherent Buddha nature that is ours, revealed in the impression this art makes on our receptive perception right in that core of ourselves where we hover.

The oeuvre of Stockhausen is so vast, and also so detailed inside its vastness, that it would be foolish to think that one could just fall into it and grasp it all in one glimpse, but this is the mistake that many a critic of the day makes, consequently being taken aback by a world that at first glance may be alien to the unaware person. This explains a lot of the hostility that has fallen upon Stockhausen in later years concerning his later works, summed up in the now almost completed cycle Licht with its seven operas, into which Stockhausen has fitted most of his compositional artworks since many years. These critics who do not find the time to settle inside this world of Stockhausen, but who would rather make some fast comments on the sly, on their way to simpler chores, cannot possibly sense the delicate layers of consciousness inside Licht, but always keep on referring to the early electronic works, which makes me wonder why they do not find their way into the amazing electronic parts of Licht!

Be that as it may, a question that could be raised is if these critics wouldn’t have liked to be able to study the works of Beethoven, for example, with Beethoven at the time of composition of his timeless works. I’m sure they would. I certainly would!
However, when thinking about Beethoven, do they think about him as the legend of classical music, of traditional, so-called classical music? Maybe so. Maybe that is all to easy to do. Be aware, though, that Beethoven was a revolutionary, a musical revolutionary of his days. He didn’t make old music; he made new music; he was a contemporary composer!

These days we have the remarkable opportunity to study with the composer of our day which evidently is the Beethoven of our time; Karlheinz Stockhausen. We are all free to attend the concerts where these ingenious works are premiered, and we can, which is even more fantastic, choose to attend the Stockhausen Courses in Kürten, Germany, each year in late summer. This is the focal point of interest in modern music; the music which will be called classical next century, when one and all will see Stockhausen towering there on the musical Parnassus alongside Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Telemann, Vivaldi, Corelli, Palestrina, Monteverdi and so forth, in the light of time.

It is touching to hear the works on this CD, works by Haydn and Mozart, rising out of the conducting baton of Stockhausen, as he gives homage to his predecessors, his spirit in communion with the spirits of these earlier maestros. There is a great respect in this, a great seriousness, as the spirit of creativity and awareness is passed down the lineage, into ever new expressions of beauty to guide us along the path towards enlightenment, which is the ultimate goal of all religious, philosophical and artistic creativity; to realize ourselves in the true Buddha nature which is ourselves, freed of the interferences of that which the Buddhists call samsara, which obstructs the view.

In the light of the growing interest in Tibetan Buddhism, which the appreciation and reception of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at universities and lecture halls all over the western world demonstrate, it may be comforting also to ponder on the thought of reincarnation, in which the true content of a being is passed on into a new body as the old one is used up, because the true content of a spirit like Stockhausen is so close to enlightenment that it already radiates truth and compassion in an overflow throughout his artistic, compositional oeuvre, as was the case also with earlier bodily emergences of spirits like Beethoven etcetera. Even though Stockhausen will reincarnate only in one bodily shape, I believe he will have many spiritual sons and daughters who may have started their path at one of the Stockhausen Courses. Stockhausen is a true bodhisattva.

The two CDs in this box constitute the sole example of Stockhausen conducting other composers’ works, but in view of what I said above, and for a number of other reasons, it is a very important issue, which I wouldn’t want anyone seriously interested in Stockhausen to miss. It casts a different light on Stockhausen as a composer and as a carrier of the torch, and I believe this view of the composer is necessary, to really get an understanding of his unique position at the forefront of the New, with all the strength of the Old.

It may be interesting to hear what the Icelandic artist Björk says about Stockhausen in connection with an interview she conducted with him:

This is, also, how the catalogue of the Stockhausen Edition looks, with just one release of old music in the long row of new works – but this release, then, is crucial. It gives this important homage to the spirit of creativity and newness throughout the history of Man, or, for that matter, the history of living beings. Stockhausen’s statement, both through his words, relayed by Björk above, and through the content of the Stockhausen Edition, also – remember this! – states that you indeed should listen to the old masters, but not most of the time. Most of the time should be focused on the new things, but for that one day of the year, for that reflecting moment, you should concentrate on the old ones that brought you here! Important!

A parable, though not completely translatable to this matter, could be what Dalai Lama said to a crowd of 5000 attendants at a lecture in Washington, D.C., in 1998, concerning western people who may want to follow the Buddhist path:

For many people who are not overly interested in modern music, Stockhausen’s works are almost impenetrable, hard to understand, but on these two CDs of the Stockhausen Edition Volume 39, it is clear to all that he respects his predecessors, and that he is just as able to carve out sublime renditions of the old masterworks as he is of presenting his own, new works. This is the new light cast upon the Maestro, which may be revealing to many, even opening the path for newcomers into the oeuvre of Stockhausen himself.

This light does not only illuminate the place where Stockhausen stands, but also spotlights his musicians, in this case his very closest ones; Markus Stockhausen [trumpet], Kathinka Pasveer [flute] and Suzanne Stephens [clarinet]. Here they soar through these old works in a flowing purity, with a touch as light as the wing-stroke of a butterfly, but with the edged contour of calligraphy and the penetrating sharpness of lightning, showing that they, also, are just as comfortable in the old tradition as in the new, innovative practices of Stockhausen’s own works.

Stockhausen writes in the booklet:

Stockhausen continues: