Gérard Grisey - Les Espaces Acoustiques

Here is a performance of Gérard Grisey's Les Espaces Acoustiques from the Munich Bienniale earlier this year. The piece has six parts, starting with a prologue for solo viola and moving to groupings for 7, 18, 33 and 84 musicians. Quite apart from the numerological aspects of these groupings, this is Grisey's 'laboratory' for explorations in sound and what music represents. As chords resonate and morph, so the mood of the music also changes, from 'serious' one minute to comical the next. (At a performance of Partiels I was at last year, the audience was laughing out loud in the final moments). Its organic, flowing nature is quite the opposite of austere post-modernism - this is music that lives and breathes.

Part 1 (Prologue - Périodes - Partiels) (52.29)

Part 2 (Modulations - Transitoires - Epilogue) (42.16)

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Conductor - Stefan Asbury

Herkulessaal, Munich Bienniale - 2nd May, 2008 (and broadcast subsequently on Bayern 4's excellent Horizonte programme).