Megadisc's Ligeti | Gamelan is a little late getting to these shores, having been released in Europe in 2001. It was certainly a source of inspiration to the 2003 release on Nonesuch, African Rhythms, curated by pianist
Pierre-Laurent Aimard and featuring György Ligeti's Etudes, including a couple of the same ones, combined with music of the Aka Pygmies and some pieces by
Steve Reich. Ligeti | Gamelan is not quite as sprawling in its program as was African Rhythms, and its combination of elements makes a bit more sense; here, selected Ligeti Etudes are put together with recordings of Indonesian Gamelan music featuring the Gamelan Gong Kebyar under the direction of I Made Bandem, as recorded in Belgium at a festival in 1996.
Both elements making up the program are well recorded here, and these are programmed in large enough chunks that Ligeti | Gamelan doesn't seem nearly as fragmentary and discursive as African Rhythms. Pianist
Jan Michiels plays the whole contents of Book II of Ligeti's Etudes, presented out of sequence, very nicely, especially in fast pieces such as "L'escalier du diable" and "Der Zauberlehrling," which require rapid-fire, but deftly controlled fingerwork in addition to endurance and power. The recordings of Gamelan Gong Kebyar are excellent, apart from a rather distantly heard suling part in the piece "Seker Jagat." This is typical, though, in any recording of live Gamelan music due to the suling's usual remote placement within the ensemble. And the recording of the Ketchack (i.e., Monkey) chorus is of better fidelity than many one is likely to hear on typical "field" recordings of Balinese music.
The obvious reason for putting together an album this way is to give the two dominant elements a chance to complement one another and refresh the ears of the listener, as both kinds of music are rather fast-paced and tend to demand a lot of one's attention. While Ligeti | Gamelan isn't quite a silk purse, it didn't take much effort for the high-profile major label with all its resources, along with
Aimard, to turn this clever idea advanced by a small label into a sow's ear. Nevertheless, that's Nonesuch's problem; here is a Megadisc that fans of Ligeti, Gamelan orchestras, and/or both should be aware of.