London,

Total immersion: Iannis Xenakis

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Barbican Hall
Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS

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Phone: 0845120 7537

Trains: BR/Tube: Moorgate

 

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A brutalism borne in the Resistance

 

For many years the BBC mounted an annual celebration of a contemporary composer that left few stones unturned. One emerged from those weekends battered, exhilarated and infinitely better informed.

This year there is a new model: three Composer Days, the last devoted to Iannis Xenakis. The opening Tracées, a burst of scorching firepower, set the mood, while the following Anastenaria continued the assault with its evocation of pagan ritual. Much jabbing and bellowing seems to suggest the climactic slaughter, though as often with Xenakis there is a sense of brutalism that doubtless reflects his wartime experiences.

Anastenaria was begun just eight years after the Second World War, in which Xenakis suffered as a Greek Resistance fighter. Sea-Nymphs (1994) sets Shakespeare’s Full Fathom Five in a way diametrically opposed to Vaughan Williams’ atmospheric version. Despite the resonance of the text, Xenakis subjects it to fragmentation, firing out the syllables fortissimo. Dissonant clashes produce weird sonorities. The BBC Singers delivered with aplomb.

Mists for solo piano (Rolf Hind the impressive executant) turned any expectations of Debussy’s impressionism on their head with its bullet-like attacks. Yet there were also brief moments of soft pianism. Unsurprisingly, Nuits, for 12 unaccompanied voices, turned out to be a memorial to unknown political prisoners that juxtaposed unsettling humour and oppressive plangency. The BBC Singers pitched in with impressive capability.

The outer extreme in taxing the performer must be reached in Troorkh, a trombone concerto that inhabits a crazed world, part grotesque absurdity, part psychological torture. Christian Lindberg, adopting the persona of a manic stand-up comedian, tamed its terrors brilliantly.

And finally Antikhton, an astonishing display of high-octane, lethal energy, delivered with abandon under Brabbins’s direction.

To be broadcast on 10 March on BBC Radio 3.

Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

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