Kraanerg (1968-69) appears to have been Xenakis’s longest work, a magnum opus whose title describes the kind of explosion of youthful energy which the composer witnessed in the social and political upheavals in Europe during 1968. Xenakis also linked the music – originally a ballet score staged in Ottawa with choreography by Roland Petit – with what he saw as the threat of a devastating population explosion in the not-too-distant future.

As an art-work reflecting very practical environmental concerns, Kraanerg can therefore be placed in the tradition of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Varèse’s Déserts: Stravinsky-like rhythmic patterns can be heard from time to time, while Varèse is remembered in the use of recorded sound on four-track tape, as well as in the prominent brass glissandi, echoing Varèse’s sirens (even though these ‘instruments’ do not appear in Déserts itself).

It would be interesting to know the provenance of the tape used in this new recording: presumably it is a copy made from Xenakis’s original, although in later life he declared that this had been made in ‘very difficult circumstances’, and should be replaced. Even if it hasn’t been, the interaction of the two sound sources, live and recorded, makes a strong impact, and I felt more keenly engaged by the music than I did when listening to the earlier recording under Roger Woodward listed above.

The col legno sound is richer and more immediate than that on the Etcetera CD, the ‘live’ playing confidently projected under a British-born conductor new to me. The disc offers only a single track, but at least the booklet notes provide some concrete information geared to minutes elapsed, helping listeners to orientate themselves: in any case, periodic recurrences of the initial brass toccata are easily recognisable, and serve to give the score a relatively traditional shape.