Bloody striking construction workers! I was in Brussels for the Easter holidays in 1958 with my parents. The Philips pavillion was not ready! O.K, I was approaching my 10th birthday, but what an experience to have missed out on.

And a much longer piece than the 4 - 4.5 minutes it really really lasts.

Hm. I certainly play the opening of Intégrales as if it's developing. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. 

(Quick aside: I got to know the Nielsen 6th symphony from a radio broadcast which was missing the first and second variations in the finale. It was the Ole Schmidt recording but I now have that on CD and it's certainly complete. Was there an LP issue missing two variations once upon a time? Maybe someone here knows...)

Pim, I got to see the pic for a very event filled 15.3 seconds, then i got a notice saying:
"Remote Linking Forbidden"
...which came as something of a surprise 

this is a version of ionisation played by what seems to be  mannheim girls school (commendable pair of glasses) with rather hirsute conductor.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9mg4KHqRPw

sounds and graphics are better here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TStutMsLX2s&NR=1

offrandes, also boulez:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxYb44Czv1A&mode=related&search=

don't know what to make of this, watch at you own peril:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQKyYmU2tPg

Fear, quite often, since you ask.

Judging by the postings so far, I'm struck by how differently people view Varese today compared with 30-40 years ago. It may be that these (present) concerns are untypical or that my own approach to both music and music-making is eccentric, but I find it surprising that words/phrases such as "well-rounded form", "pacing", "rhetoric" and (blimey !) "development" are being discussed - I would have expected more on "crystallisation", "geometric planes", "sonority", "sound-mass", "spatial concept", "resonance", "timbre" - perhaps such things are taken for granted ?

Any comments on the following ?
1) Varese's music is essentially anti-European and has a more immediate connection with the so-called American "ultra-modern" trends of the 1920s (Dane Rudhyar ? Original version of Antheil's Ballet Mecanique ?)
2) One for Ian in particular - Jolivet's Mana is an example (one of only a few) of Varese's influence pre-WW2 - to what extent ? (I've seen a score but not heard it)
3) Performances - I was brought up on Craft - which to this day remain strong + authoritative - and yes, I'm aware that as they were the first recordings I heard I'm probably unfairly biased. But his account of Offrandes, at least, seems to lead the field by some distance. I've always hated the early Boulez recordings (sorry Ollie !) which for me had a singular lack of intensity and a puzzlingly anaemic approach to timbre (those trombones - aaaargh !)
4) Ecuatorial - one of my favourites - I'm going to hear it live tomorrow at the Prom (many thanks to Chafing Dish for posting the article). I have fond memories of the mid-60s Prom performance. Was it as good as I remember ? Bryn, you were there, weren't you  ?
5) My least favourite ? Integrales - which is probably many people's favourite. The reason - I have a problem with the formal balance such as does not happen in other pieces. An instance where the figure of repeated notes preceded by a rising glissando becomes a bit of a pain.
6) Sirens - "anecdotal" ? "gimmicky" ? Hmmm.
7) Here's an anecdote. Nicolas Slominsky's autobiography relates the difficulties of recording Ionisation since the New York Phil players couldn't handle the rhythms. He had to get composers like Cowell, Salzedo, Creston + Riegger to perform it. Interestingly he didn't have the same problems with Cuban percussionists when he performed it in Havana . . . A few years back, the London Sinfonietta did a concert which consisted of Ferneyhough's Transit and Reich's Music for 18 musicians in which the Ferneyhough seemed extremely assured whereas the Reich was truly awful - most of the players (and the conductor) had little idea how to approach it.

A fine set of observations, autoharp!


I suppose it does come across to me too as 'anti-European' in a sense but only in the sense that a lot of 1920s futurism in Europe does as well. (Especially if you take geographical rather than political Europe, with Mosolov and the early Prokofiev and Shostakovich... and, well, a certain Stravinsky piece to an extent!)


We did a Zappa / Varèse concert in Montreux about a year ago which included Ionisation; we did it in an arrangement by a local percussionist (local to Köln, not Montreux ) which concentrated the stuff that really needs percussion smarts (like the snare drums) in a few parts so that the rest can be more safely played by people without a percussion background. I didn't originally think it was such a great idea but finally put my hand up for it on the grounds that it was going to happen anyway and it would be better with me playing a part than with some of the other candidates on offer. One of the first rehearsals was conducted by our oboist who brought a score from the music institute in Darmstadt with him - it had written alongside various parts "Gazzeloni", "Maderna", Deinzer", "Kontarsky"... so it seems there's a bit of a tradition there.

My own personal problem with the sirens is that they're invariably, well, pitched. Even (or is it especially? I've never made up my mind) when there's no other pitched content in the score I can't for the life of me hear them as anything other than notes. I do find that distracting.

(Lots of composers use bowed cymbals in the assumption that they're unpitched as well - this is also something which causes me aural problems, especially when there's other pitch going on that they interfere with. So it's clearly all my fault.)