Pianist Aki Takahashi’s follows up her acclaimed first disc of Xenakis piano works (which won a “Diapason d’or” in France, mode80) with this second volume — this time works for piano with instruments.
She is joined by an all-star cast of players: Rohan de Saram (formerly of the Arditti Quartet), The JACK Quartet, and the Callithumpian Consort conducted by Stephen Drury.
All works are underrepresented in current recordings or difficult to find at all.
Includes the first new recording in over 10 years of Xenakis’ landmark EONTA (1963) for piano, 2 trumpets & 3 trombones — a blistering work which rates among the most difficult solo piano pieces ever written. Unique effects include requiring the brass players to move about the stage for spatialised effects, and to point the bells of the brass instruments into the piano and play to create resonance.
AKEA (1986), written for Claude Helffer and the Arditti Quartet, is not a typical addition to the romantic tradition of the piano quintet. It signaled the beginning of a more inward, reflective phase of Xenakis’ output.
MORISIMA/AMORSIMA, was composed with the aid of a computer in 1962. This is the only readily available recording
PAILLE IN THE WIND (1992) for piano & cello performed with Rohan de Saram. This is the only available recording
Original hi-definition 96khz/24-bit recording.
