Search - Iannis Xenakis :: Xenakis: Complete String Quartets

Amazing - and Very Au Courant

JMB1014 | USA | 02/24/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Iannis Xenais is clearly a hit in New York City these days. Several of his works were featured there on June 21, including a piece for percussion, "Persephassa," which was performed outdoors and on platforms floating in Central Park Lake. A substantial article about him appears in the March 1, 2010 issue of "The New Yorker." An exhibition at the Drawing Center in New York shows how he combined his visual and musical ideas. While I am not an expert on modern music, I do appreciate how amazing are the four string quartets on this album as exercises in spatial music design. The playing by the quartet called JACK is outstanding: fierce, clear and resonant. The sound is superb and the price is fair (it was lower earlier when I originally wrote this review).



Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) was part of the Greek Resistance during World War II. After the war, he worked as an engineer and architect. From 1947-1959, he was part of the studio of Le Corbusier in Paris. Even his musical compositions contain mathematical notations. Xenakis is regarded as one of the most important of modern composers and has dozens of pieces to his credit, including several for large ensembles and innovative settings. He was a pioneer of electronic and computerized music. Fortunately, he also published a set of essays promulgating his views on composition, entitled "Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition" (1971).



While these four works are dissonant and highly challenging (they are composed "stochastically," meaning with random variables - and I gather acquaintance with probability theory makes them more comprehensible) they are truly rewarding to hear in themselves, and so splendidly performed that this CD gives real pleasure. It has won substantial critical acclaim and includes the only recorded performance of "Ergma," Xenakis' final quartet, written in 1994. (You can also see the performances on surround sound DVD, which must be purchased separately. I have seen excerpts and it is worth it to watch the DVD.) If you are adventurous or just love modern music, string quartets, or both, I highly recommend this disc."