Search - Arditti String Quartet, Trio Le Cercle :: Georges Aperghis / François-Bernard Mâche / Iannis Xenakis / Allain Gaussin: Works for String Quartet & Percussion Trio

Great composers, great pieces, great album

Mikhail Lewis | Missoula, MT, USofA | 06/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album features the Arditti String Quartet and Trio Le Cercle and appears to be titled 'From France'. The combination then alternation of string quartet and percussion allows for a wide range of sound quality which is greatly exploited by the selection of composers. Aperghis' piece for both ensembles, 'Triangle Carre', translates as "Triangle Square". Mache's piece, Eridan, for string quartet, combines elements of birdsong with Eastern bowing techniques, and is named after a Celtic river in Ireland and a Greek one in Hades. Xenakis' piece, Okho, for percussion trio, is scored for three djembes, large drums which are struck in configurations producing six traditional tone colors which Xenakis slowly changes over a progression from a completely regular or orderly pulse to a irregular or aleatoric one. Gaussin's piece, Chakra, employs the "transmutation" or subtle transformation of the given material and is symmetrically in three movements with two dense outer and a slow inner movement."