Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001)
Palimpsest, pour piano et ensemble
Echange, pour clarinette basse et ensemble
Akanthos, pour voix et ensemble
Zythos, pour trombone et six marimbas
Thalleïn, pour ensemble de chambre
O-Mega, pour percussion et ensemble

International Contemporary Ensemble
red fish blue fish
Steven Schick, direction

An exhilarating Xenakis program, built around works for soloist and ensemble. Most of the soloists are from the acclaimed International Contemporary Ensemble led by their resident guest conductor, Steven Schick. Zythos and O-Mega are among Xenakis’s final compositions. In the Xenakis oeuvre these constitute a new and plaintive percussion music. Yet there is a strange power in these stark landscapes. In Zythos, long trombone lines are wound round the threading of six marimba parts. It receives its first recording here, featuring trombonist Benny Sluchin of Ensemble Intercontemporain. O-Mega, a fitting name for Xenakis’s final work, is a short offering for percussion soloist and chamber group. Palimpsest is essentially a piano concerto, but the piano along with a set of drums is placed behind a row of nine string and wind instruments. Thus a listener often needs to hear (and see) through the musicians in the front row to hear the soloist in the back. The title implies that what is nearer and more apparent is more recent than what is farther away. Echange is a mysterious work exploring rhythm and texture. A solo bass clarinet spans a spectrum of textural possibility from the long, liquid tones of its low register to the percussive jolt of slap tonguing and key clicks. Akanthos is music built by the rapid exchange of oppositions along with a supple line for female voice. Thalleïn, a long work for large ensemble, echoes the theme of newness. From a basic rhythmic substrate multiple and complex layers of sound issue forth – each an elaboration of the previous one until the sounding space is saturated. Volume 13 of Mode’s Xenakis Edition is also the third volume of Ensemble Music.