Du solo (Psappha, Bounces) to the sextet (Persephassa, Pléiades), the percussion seems emblematic of the great coup struck by Iannis Xenakis at the end of the 1960s to make the rhythmic element, somewhat neglected by the avant-garde, a driving force of the unheard of. Renowned concert performer, professor at the Paris Conservatory and member of the Orchester National de France, Florent Jodelet sees in these works the characteristic double aspiration of the composer of Greek origin: “On the one hand, the exploration of virgin territory and, on the other hand, the link with an immemorial gesture. » Psappha thus alternates, according to him, “the great chaos and the implacable unison”.
If the interest of percussionists for the scores of Xenakis is undeniable, it is, explains Florent Jodelet, because they involve several challenges: technical, formal and physical. “Sometimes, like Shiva, you would need to have several arms and several feet to do everything as it should be”, claims with a smile the seasoned interpreter who sees, moreover, in the social dimension of the pieces for ensemble another possibility of rapprochement between Iannis Xenakis and Antiquity. « Pléiades seems to me like a political piece, in the sense that the assembly makes civic chamber music, with speeches, harangues and heated debates. »
“The Voice of the Earth”
Hsin-Hsuan Wu, a young Taiwanese who joined the prestigious Percussions de Strasbourg in 2017, does not have the same perception. ” To me, Pléiades resembles six stars circulating in a galaxy”, she confides, while “it is the voice of the Earth which rises from Persephassa »the other sextet masterfully restored by the Percussions de Strasbourg in the book-CD which commemorates their sixtieth anniversary in 2022.
If he recognizes that the percussion works of his former master “magnify” a founding principle of his music, the composer Pascal Dusapin does not think it should be distinguished from gesture, “a crushing gesture” according to him, imposed by Iannis Xenakis on other instruments, whether piano or strings. Recalling that this great innovator was “nourished by extra-European cultures”Pascal Dusapin detects an echo of it in Metastasisfor orchestra. “You can hear a wood-block typed very hard, like in nô theatre, a way for Xenakis to go to the depths of the sound… the sound that you don’t hear. » To bring out the pulp, the essence, in a way.