Tod Machover - Spectres: Music For Large Ensemble And Computer Sounds (1986)

Two works by Tod Machover (b. 1953, NY) dating from 1984, during his period at IRCAM in Paris.  Although the album title might be expected to refer to all its contents, only one of these is for ensemble and computer - first up is Nature's Breath, purely for orchestra.  Named after a Taoist saying about the force of wind producing other sounds in nature, it's an enchanting piece that concerns itself with "unity between diverse materials", and centres on a long, unfolding melody line whilst the three main sections respectively explore harmony, timbre and rhythm.

Spectres Parisiens is even more engrossing, played by the ASKO Ensemble conducted by Peter Eötvös against Machover's taped part from IRCAM, realised on the 4X digital synth.  Machover doesn't go as far as calling this spectral music, but it definitely touches on some of the techniques used by the French spectralists.  Again, Machover is interested in "many diverse elements [which] are accumulated and eventually unified", apparently a driving force in his overall musical thinking.  As trailered in the bio note for this CD, his next project was an opera based on Philip K. Dick's VALIS - must get hold of that sometime.

link

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Edgard Varèse - The Complete Works (Asko/Concertgebouw/Chailly) (1998 compi, rec. '92-'97)

A supreme overview of the composer that many people now discover via one of his biggest fans, Frank Zappa (fairly sure that was my route), these two discs are the authoritative guide to Edgard Varèse (1883-1965).  His student/close colleague Chou Wen-chung, still alive today at 95, helped ensure that this 1990s recording project came as damn near to exhaustive as possible by providing original manuscripts and editing incomplete ones as close to Varèse's likely intentions as he could.

This brought a fresh nuance to one of the slimmest catalogues in composing history (under three hours' worth of music in a regular lifespan), all of it here conducted by Riccardo Chailly.  The first disc is performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and takes in full-bodied early orchestral wonders like Ameriques and Arcana, both fine examples of Varèse's attitude to composing as blocks of 'organised sounds', with recurring themes and striking scores, not least for percussion and other devices (that air siren being a bit of a trademark).  Also on Disc 1 is the remastered original tape of Poème électronique for the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 World's Fair - the pavilion being constructed by Iannis Xenakis, whose Concret PH also featured on entry and exit.

On Disc 2 the Asko Ensemble perform some of Varèse's most frequently recorded pieces like Density 21:5 for flute, and Ionisation for percussion (an alternate version of the latter, by Les Percussions de Strasbourg, here).  Varèse's use of technology is also showcased on Ecuatorial, with its ondes martenots (originally intended as parts for theremins - apparently what you can hear here is a special construction with elements of both) and Déserts, his late masterpiece.

Déserts is believed to originate from an abandoned symphony about outer space, and also an unfinished tape work - it thus became the first written & performed work to feature tape music (of percussive and factory sounds) alongside live musicians.  Intending to evoke not just physical deserts, "but also distant inner space... where man is alone in a world of mystery and essential solitude", it's possibly the crowning achievement in a compact but still astonishing life's work.

Original cover, 2CD fatbox, 1998

Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
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