Mauricio Kagel is a conductor, writer, teacher and self-taught composer, initially influenced by avant-garde figures such as Boulez and Stockhausen. During the 1980s, however, his musical language became more conventional, although it could never be called nostalgic. Szenario, scored for string orchestra and tape, was conceived as an independent work, but quickly found a new rôle as musical backing to the Luis Buñuel/Salvador Dalí silent classic Le chien andalou. Duodramen can be heard either as an orchestral song-cycle in the tradition of Mahler or as an operatic ‘final scene’ in the tradition of Wagner or Richard Strauss. Composed during 1989-90, Liturgien is Kagel’s take on a sacred service so as to illuminate its musical essence from a new perspective.