Alexej Gerassimez - Percussion - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Black Mountains features original compositions by Alexej Gerassimez and Gordon Hamilton, who also conducts this recording with the NDR Radiophilharmonie. The program explores the dynamic interplay between orchestral sound and percussion, with a highlight being the work Leviathan by John Psathas-a powerful composition for percussion and orchestra, written specifically for Alexej Gerassimez.

American Percussion Works is a rare collection of seldom heard works each with specific rules or themes as a basis for the compositions. In John Cage's First Construction the principle is based on the figure 16. Alberto Ginatera's work Cantata para America Magica, uses pre-Columbian texts based on the conditions of human life, with war, natural phenomena, daybreak, night and love. Lou Harrison mixes non-European forms which 'follow the pattern of having a single melodic part accompanied (or enhanced) by rhythmic percussion' in his Koncherto. Varese's Ionisation also enters a new land being his first solely percussive work where 'he finds a new grammar for the language of music.' Album Tracks 1. First Construction (In Metal) 2. Cantata Para América Mágica, Op. 27 3. I. Preludio y Canto a la Aurora 4. II. Nocturno y Canto de Amor 5. III. Canto Para la Partida de los Guerreros 6. IV. Interludio Fantástico 7. V. Canto de Agonía y Desolación 8. VI. Canto de la Profecía 9. Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra 10. I. Allegro Maestoso, Allegro Vivace 11. II. Largo, Cantabile 12. III. Allegro Vigoroso, Poco Presto 13. Ionisation

These six world premiere recordings present one of percussion's greatest masters in a panorama of works by leading composers of our time. This remarkable journey through sound and rhythm includes electronics such as the dramatically funky climaxes to Bruno Mantovani's Le Grand Jeu, a dreamy musical halo around metal instruments in Marco Stroppa's Auras and Jean-Claude Risset's sound illusions in Nature contre Nature. Peter Eotvos's Thunder is a unique quest to explore the potential of a single bass timpani, while Philippe Hersant revisits Berlioz, Schuber and Gounod in his Trois petites etudes. Rene Leibowitz's Three Caprices were among the first works written for solo vibraphone. Album Tracks 1. Le Grand Jeu 2. Auras 3. Thunder 4. I. Allegro Con Fantasia 5. II. Più Tosto Lento 6. III. Con Moto 7. Le Roi de Thulé 8. Marguerite Au Rouet 9. Gloire Immortelle de Nos Aïeux