Music Connects the Onassis Stegi and the Panteion University vol. 7
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Introduction
This musical initiative, which bridges Syngrou Avenue to connect Onassis Stegi with Panteion University, is celebrating the centennial year since the birth of Iannis Xenakis with new commissions, young musicians, and world-first performances.
Commissions of new works, young musicians and premieres, a double bass recorder producing deep vibrations, and Iannis Xenakis listening το Ravel’s piano and welcoming Spring with a Zyia.
The project “Music connects the Onassis Stegi and the Panteion University” brings together the two institutions for the seventh consecutive year. Following the online 2020 version, due to the pandemic, we come back to live performances with a program where wind instruments have a major role, while we also celebrate the 100th anniversary of Iannis Xenakis’s birth (1922-2001).
We will listen how the composer encompassed material derived from Greek traditional music, but also how he applied the mathematical game theory using the brass instruments' sound. A new generation of composers pays tribute to his memory, through techniques that expand his thinking, but also with unexpected fusions between Xenakian fragments, classical compositions, and electronic sounds.
Thursday 3 March
20:30
Music exchanges between Greece and France
Ioanna Vrakatseli: mezzo soprano
Myrto Akrivou: piano
Amalia Kountouri: flute
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937, FR), “Cinq mélodies populaires grecques” (1904-06), for voice and piano
Dzovinar Mikirditsian (b. 1979, GR/LB/AM), “Tamzara” (2022)*, for voice, flute, and piano, commissioned by Onassis StegiIannis Xenakis (1922-2001, GR/FR), “Six chansons” (1950-51), for piano
François-Bernard Mâche (b. 1935, FR), “Trois Chants Sacrés,” for solo voice and tambourine – “n. 3 Maponos” (1990)**
Iannis Xenakis, “Zyia” (1952), for mezzo, flute, and piano
21:30
(D)ommage à Xenakis
Giorgos Konstantinou: solo piano
Τom Wolgers (b. 1959, SE), “Ηοmmage à Le Corbusier” (1987), for electronics
Giorgos Konstantinou (b. 1978, GR), “Fragmented Light Grid,” after “Herma” by Iannis Xenakis (2016)
Giorgos Koumendakis (b. 1959, GR), “Le Cormoran de Iannis Xenakis,” from the cycle “Mediterranean Desert” (2000)
Salvatore Sciarrino (b. 1947, IT), “De la nuit” (1971)
Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001), “à R.” (1987)
Robert Coleman (IE), “Hommage à Xenakis” (2016)**, for electronics
Friday 4 March
20:30
Music and Mathematics
Aeris Trio
Dionysis Kokolis: trumpet
Christos Salvanos: horn
Andreas-Rolandos Theodorou: trombone
Featuring Giorgos Theodoros Rarakos: tuba
Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001, GR/FR), “Keren” (1986), for solo trombone
Fani Kosona (b. 1969, GR), “Shadow falls between” (2020)*, for trumpet, horn, and trombone
Iannis Xenakis, “Linaïa-Agon” (1972), musical game for three wind instruments (horn, trombone, and tuba)
21:30
Feldman – Xenakis
ARTéfacts Ensemble
Spyros Tzekos: clarinet
Theo Vazakas: percussion
Panagiotis Ziavras: percussion
Alexandros Markeas (b. 1965, GR/FR), "Trois clins d'œil rythmés" (2006), for clarinet and electronics
Sarah Nemtsov (b. 1980, DE), “Implicated amplification” (2014)**, for bass clarinet and electronics (three effects pedals and amplification)
Minas Borboudakis (b. 1974, GR/DE), "Unisono" (2003)**, for two percussionists
Morton Feldman (1926-1987, US) "Bass Clarinet and Percussion" (1981), for bass clarinet and percussion (two performers)
Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001, GR/FR), "Concret PH" (1958), for tape
* World premiere
** Greek premiere
The first concert reveals elective musical affinities between Greece and France. Inspiration from traditional music is the common thread between Ravel, (early) Xenakis and Stegi’s commission to Dzovinar Mikirditsian, who, for the first time, is being performed in the country of her origin. François-Bernard Mâche, traveling further back in time, confers a musical substance to a dead Gallic language.
Pianist Giorgos Konstantinou had a vision of a free association collage in the program “(D)ommage à Xenakis,” ‘weaving’ fragments from Chopin’s “Nocturnes” around the emblematic “Herma.” A second work by Xenakis, dedicated to Ravel, converses with that by Sciarrino, while works by Koumendakis, Coleman, and Wolgers are looking from different points at the Xenakian universe.
The Aeris brass trio reveals the virtuosity of Xenakis’s soloistic works, but also the special connections between music and mathematics: “Linaïa-Agon” incorporates Game Theory into a strategic musical confrontation, whereas a new trio by composer and mathematician Fani Kosona incorporates tools from the field of Topology.
A video of a public conversation between Morton Feldman and Iannis Xenakis inspired the concept of this program, where the latter’s most hushed work is heard as an aftermath of Feldman's trio for bass clarinet and percussion. Aspiring composer Myrto Nizami was commissioned by Onassis Stegi to write for the same instrumental combination. Minas Borboudakis has taken full advantage of Feldman’s symmetry between the two percussion settings, while Alexandros Markeas and Sarah Nemtsov explore the full range of the clarinet’s dexterity.
