Theatre of Voices: Stimmung

A piece like Stimmung, Stockhausen's 1968 work for six vocalists, is probably too well-known to grab headlines in performance (the way that presentations of the composer's more obscure works sometimes can). But that doesn't mean you shouldn't go check it out. When heard live in a room, sung by members of the storied vocal ensemble Theatre of Voices, the cavorting overtones of Stockhausen's hour-long "meditation on a chord" amount to an ear-and-head-trip. The clips of erotic poetry, and the chanted names of gods and goddesses, are just a bonus.