Total Immersion:
Xenakis, Iannis (1922-2001)
Tracées 7'
Anastenaria 23'
Sea-Nymphs* 8'
Mists 12'
Nuits* 9'
Troorkh 16'
Antikhthon 19'
Christian Lindberg, trombone
Rolf Hind, piano
BBC Singers
Men of the BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins, conductor
Stephen Betteridge, conductor*
Broadcast live Saturday 7 March 2009 on BBC Radio 3
Barbican Hall, London
These are drop-dead gorgeous sounds to revel in from the Greek master, like some mashup of Tibetan Buddhist Temple music and, I don't know. Everything. If Mahler wanted a symphony to encapsulate the world, this is an alternate approach to that impulse.
Andrew Maisel of www.classicalsource.com gives a review of the performance (a complete version is included in the info file):
"There couldn’t be a more mind-blowing introduction to Xenakis’s music than the opening juggernaut of a work, Tracées...
Christian Lindberg commissioned Troorkh, a concerto for trombone and orchestra. ... After close on 20 years, Troorkh seems no easier for Lindberg, requiring superhuman levels of stamina to get through the rapid-fire glissandos and writhing complexities, accents frequently pushed to a full three-and-half octaves. Watching Lindberg in action is an event in itself. In between passages he would be limbering up, sucking in large amounts of air ready for the next assault. A Herculean effort, too, from the trombonists of the BBCSO, pushed almost to the same extremes in passages mirroring the soloist....Full marks though to Martyn Brabbins and the BBC forces who continually displayed their versatility, discipline and sheer staying power over this very long evening."
from the archives (CA1327) originally, all thanks to Maestro Greene there.
