Arcana — Integrales — Ionisation: Varese. Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra/Zubin Mehta (Decca).

Reviewed by Felix Manskleid.

It has been said that the music of Edgar Varese has the beauty and precision of an intricate machine which creates its emotion objectively and not as a subjective projection of the composer's feelings. As one of the outstanding experimentalists of his day, Varese has always been primarily concerned with the organisation of sound, a concept which he traces back to his great love for science and mathematics and favoured as an engineering student. His approach to music is therefore of an abstract and complex nature and he tends to think in blocks of sound that generate their own polyphony or chordal harmony, independently. In spite of this freedom from conformity, most of Varese's works are highly organised, although not really programmed, and possess form and structure. His dissonant world often rejects standard instrumental procedures and combinations, such as the large string section which nevertheless happens to be used in "Arcana", but it is neatly counterbalanced by 39 percussion instruments and an augmented wind section. His obsession with percussion as a means of colour has lead him, as in the case of "Integrales", to increase the percussion elements in the orchestra by changing rhythms and obtaining new "voices" (the lion-roar or string drum) in order to convey the full impact of dramatic overtones. This direction is carried a step further in "Ionisation", one of Varese's most radical works and in which percussive sounds are manipulated for 100% effect. The performance of all three compositions by the LA Philharmonic Orchestra is skillfully handled by this competent ensemble.