Programs

Iannis Xenakis: Evryali

"Iannis Xenakis’s 'Evryali' (1973) is everything the Webern is not. Though not as opaque or harmonically complex as other Xenakis works, it made the Webern seem light textured and breezy by comparison. That said, harmony often takes a back seat to rhythm as the driving impulse of 'Evryali.' Chords are frequently repeated with an almost Minimalist insistence, but rhythmic patterns evolve. At times the work takes on a mechanistic character, like an engine gone mad, but even in these passages Mr. Kigawa was firmly in control. And when Xenakis shifts suddenly from a heavy, repetitive whirlwind passage to a moment of delicate tracery at the top of the keyboard, Mr. Kigawa negotiated the change deftly." - Allan Kozinn, The New York Times

"Xenakis’ Evryali (clouds). No pianist takes this lightly, much of it is seemingly unplayable, but Mr. Kigawa gave it the extra effort, so its unending percussive repeated note-clusters becoming hypnotic in themselves. He may have sacrificed a few notes here and there, but the major effect glittered with the repetitions. Supposedly this was based on Balinese gamelan music, but that music is of endless variations on a particular rhythmic motif, with much contrapuntal chatter amidst the drums sections. Nothing contrapuntal was in this performance, but its repetitions and drumming was beguiling by itself. Needless to say, the pianist not only demonstrated the electricity, the dynamism and the volition to make each tone cluster inevitable, but, as in the other works, his fingers, even in the most tightly-knit phrases, allowed rays of color and even light to shine through." - Harry Rolnick, Concert.Net