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I doubt that many people here know who he is, so don't expect much help here.

I happen to like his particular brand of spectral music. It's a nice alternative to Murail, Harvey, et al. I like his piano sonatas quite a bit, along with his piano concerto. I also admire his "fun" titles in those pieces.

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[indutrial]

I didn't know he had a concerto.  Are there any recordings?

https://differentwaters.blogspot.com/search?q=spectral

Take a look there. I don't recall if the concerto was ever posted, but I definitely checked out my fair share of Radulescu and Murail pieces thanks to that blogmaster. I don't know if the links on there expired yet, but hopefully they did not.

[minor9th]

I didn't know he had a concerto.  Are there any recordings?

Yes--Amazon.com has it--and some brief samples.

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[i heart xenakis]

The Sonatas are ok...

I don't have much respect for his work to be honest.  Some of the most indulgent crap out there.  Who writes a piece for 9 Orchestras or 9 String Quartets or 42 Gongs or 23 Flutes?  I also don't think he's a particularly effective technician, which is very bad considering he's a spectral composer which is pure technique.  I mean, just look at some of these pieces of his:

Hierophany (1973) recitation in 42 languages with 42 children
Do Emerge Ultimate Silence (1974/84) for 34 children's voices in groups with 34 spectrally tuned monochords
Byzantine Prayer (1988) for 40 flautists with 72 flutes
Dr. Kai Hong's Diamond Mountain (1991) for 61 spectral gongs and soloists

[indutrial]

The Sonatas are ok...

I don't have much respect for his work to be honest.  Some of the most indulgent crap out there.  Who writes a piece for 9 Orchestras or 9 String Quartets or 42 Gongs or 23 Flutes?  I also don't think he's a particularly effective technician, which is very bad considering he's a spectral composer which is pure technique.  I mean, just look at some of these pieces of his:

Hierophany (1973) recitation in 42 languages with 42 children
Do Emerge Ultimate Silence (1974/84) for 34 children's voices in groups with 34 spectrally tuned monochords
Byzantine Prayer (1988) for 40 flautists with 72 flutes
Dr. Kai Hong's Diamond Mountain (1991) for 61 spectral gongs and soloists

Where does one find 42 children of different ethnicities (let alone 34 children period) who will behave long enough to perform a piece they probably have little or no interest or emotional connection to. I found it amusing that he has this in his catalogue.

String Quartet IV

...................................for NINE string quartets!

The propensity for bizarre settings is something that I have been used to seeing with improviser/composer Anthony Braxton and his various projects (including a composition for 100 marching tuba players that actually happened in Manhattan last year and a older piece for four orchestras), but Radulescu steps it up much further. I really like String Quartet no. 5 (the only one I've heard). Inner Time II (for seven clarinets) has some excellent parts as well, but it's very lengthy (almost an hour....of ALL clarinets) and there are some high-pitched harmonic-based parts that make me feel like my ears are going to bleed.

His level of indulgence seems pretty startling and over the top, but I like his traditionally-instrumentated works (sonatas, concerto, string quartets with 4 players as opposed to 36) enough to continue checking out his stuff when it comes along. His work is nothing I would go nuts for, but definitely of interest. As far as the "spectral" composers who he is often grouped with in the literature, I'm much more interested in Murail's work.

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[i heart xenakis]

Any suggestions/recommendations on where to start with Murail?

Try Territoires de l'Oubli.  It's his masterwork as far as piano music goes.

[retrouvailles]

Just get the whole Marilyn Nonken set. You can't go wrong with any of it.

[indutrial]

Just get the whole Marilyn Nonken set. You can't go wrong with any of it.

Yeah, I picked up that release on eMusic a while back and it was totally worth it. There are also some works (including the relatively well-known Gondwanaland or whatever it's called for orchestra and Vampyr for solo electric guitar on the same blog that had the Radulescu content. Don't know if the Murail stuff is still posted but it's worth a shot to look).

On a side note, Marilyn Nonken is excellent. I highly recommend getting a copy of the CRI disc she did called "American Spiritual" which included a work by Babbitt, a portion of Finnissy's "History of Photography..." and some other recent works. Well worth listening to.

[retrouvailles]

Murail's other pieces are worth checking out. I didn't really like Vampyr, though. I liked what little I heard of Gondwana, which is a kind of "spectral symphony", I read somewhere. His chamber works are interesting also. I could post some on GFF if you are interested. I will have to look into that Marilyn Nonken disk that you recommended, being the new music fan that I am.

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I think this piece by Murail, called Tellur, is spectral. Not sure though. I like it though.