Featured works: "Pléiades" and Psappha." Performed by Kroumata Percussion Ensemble; Gert Mortensen, percussion. "Xenakis has been very interested in percussion music -- ever since his orchestral piece 'Terretektorh (1966) in which the instrumental forces are spread throughout the hall, by way of 'Psappha' (1975) for a lone percussion virtuoso all the way to 'Pléiades' (1979) for six percussionists -- perhaps the largest composition in the entire percussion repertoire, and the most daring challenge. The title is intentionally ambiguous: the word itself means 'many' and alludes both to the six performers and to the four movements. The title also refers to a myth of antiquity, as so often from this educated Greek... The greatest part of the inspiration behind the piece probably comes from astronomy. The steady rhythmic pulse is varied by means of small alterations, injections of life, and is subsequently built up into such complicated patterns that one could speak of 'galaxies of sound.' In this dizzying experience there is still the joy of recognition, however, and at the end one comes back after an upheaving excursion
Details
Cat. number: BIS-CD-482
Year: 2002
