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.

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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

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Ilan Volkov - Zappa, Anderson, Ives (2018)

A concert recording from the Glasgow City Halls a year and a half ago, which I picked up when it was given a recent re-broadcast.  The focus on Zappa for the promotional material (like the image above) might seem a bit off-target when you realise his music only takes up the first 13 minutes of the concert, but regardless, it's great to hear The Perfect Stranger performed live.  Originally conducted by Pierre Boulez for the album of the same name in 1984, the evocation of a sleazy vacuum cleaner salesman is in good hands with Ilan Volkov and the BBC SSO.

So what music would be ideal to pair with Zappa, to make up the main meat of a concert?  Varèse might be the obvious thought, but here we get Charles Ives' New England Holidays, which is also a great choice.  Written over a few years as four individual pieces, the movements are intended to evoke memories of childhood holidays, and do so in grand style.  Programmed in between Zappa and Ives is British composer Julian Anderson's piano concerto The Imaginary Museum, which the SSO/Volkov originally premiered in 2017.  Written as a virtual world tour, it sounds fantastic and makes me want to hear more by Anderson.  More Ives coming next week.

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pw: sgtg