Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis writes music of fierce architecture and physical force: piano works that demand absolute mastery, chamber pieces that scrape and glissando into eerie space, and percussion grooves that build from simple cells into relentless drive.
Herma sits among mid-century piano modernism with a hard, logical bite. Charisma for clarinet and cello draws multiphonics, quarter-tones, register extremes, scrapes and slow glissandi into an unnerving, space-age soundscape. Morsima-Amorsima holds its own as a linchpin in mixed chamber programmes. Rebonds A and B, for bongos, congas, toms, bass drums and woodblocks, work by gradual growth of repetitive ideas: groove-based, driving, a defining solo percussion test. The writing is physical, unsentimental and built to be heard in performance.
Compositions by Iannis Xenakis appear on
One
Claire Edwardes is one of Australia’s most charismatic performers, and this is her third solo CD for Tall Poppies. Her first (Coil, TP193) gathered important Australian works; her second (Flash, TP215) mixed children’s-piano miniatures with new commissions and won the 2012 Art Music Award for Excellence.
A Day in the Life of a Clarinet
Peter Jenkin presents the clarinet in its many modern guises, equally at home with Alban Berg, multi-tracked Bach, klezmer, tango, jazz and electronics.
Windows in Time
austraLYSIS is the brainchild of Roger Dean, and exists in several incarnations, including a live electronics band. Here they are in their standard chamber music format and have chosen a programme in which the linchpins are Xenakis and the music of New Zealand composer Lyell Cresswell.
Notations
Stephanie McCallum is a Sydney-based pianist who specialises in contemporary music. Her performances bring light and colour to these works. Music by Xenakis and Boulez sits well beside a generation of Australian composers.