BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Plays Xenakis, Debussy, Ligeti & Bartók (15 December 2022)

Concert broadcast from Glasgow last month, with the announcer opening on a Xenakis quote: "savageness is part of everyday life".  With such a weighty introduction, you'd be expecting some fireworks, and the musicians of the BBC SSO certainly deliver in the opening blast of Xenakis' computer-composed Atrées.  But there's subtlety too, in the sumptuous rendering of Debussy's Jeux that fills out the concert's first half.

Ilan Volkov, a conductor I always like for his relish for the avant-garde, talks us through the tuning used for Ligeti's Ramifications before taking the two groups of strings into the piece's still-remarkable miasma of sound.  The grand finale is another landmark in 20th century music, Bartók's Music For Strings, Percussion & Celesta, sounding riveting all the way from the grand sweep at its outset through the eerie third movement and beyond.

link

pw: sgtg

Iannis Xenakis at SGTG:

Akea, Ittidra, À. R,, piano fragment  

Palimpsest, Épéi, Dikhtas, Akanthos

Pour La Paix/Voyage Absolu   

Nuits  

Rebonds B  

Akrata  

Atrées, Morsima-Amorsima etc  

Evryali/Herma   

Phlegra, Jalons etc
Oresteïa
Synaphaï
Persephassa
Ata, Jonchaies etc
Pléiades/Psappha
Bohor etc
Kraanerg
Terretektorh/Nomos Gamma
La Légende D'Eer
Persepolis

 

György Ligeti at SGTG:

Clear Or Cloudy: Complete Recordings On Deutsche Grammophon

Requiem, Aventures, Nouvelles Aventures 

Artikulation