Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Members of the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic, Juan Pablo Izquierdo - George Crumb: Makrokosmos III, Black Angels (2006)

If you've never heard the music of George Crumb before, you are in for a treat. Well, treat may not be exactly the right word; perhaps "an experience" would be a better way to put it. Written in 1970 and 1974, Crumb's Black Angels: Thirteen Images from the Dark Land for electric string quartet and Makrokosmos III: Music for a Summer Evening for 2 amplified pianos and percussion are the classical music equivalent of psychedelic rock. Recorded here under the direction of Juan Pablo Izquierdo, Crumb's music is as wild, crazy, wonderful, evocative, deep, and high as the best psychedelia of the period by Pink Floyd or the Grateful Dead. In Makrokosmos III, Izquierdo and seven players, including the amazing Andrés Cladera performing on slide whistle, recorder, whistle, and voices, create a verdant nocturnal musical landscape à la Bartók. In Black Angels, Izquierdo, the Cuarteto LatinAmericano, and members of the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic perform a composer-authorized arrangement of Crumb's searingly horrific and radiantly beautiful masterpiece. Recorded in amazingly vivid sound by Mode, these recordings deserve to be heard by anyone who already knows and loves, if that's the right word, the music. New listeners should be psychologically prepared to have their minds blown.