A percussion festival in the central hall at the CENTQUATRE. Persephassa is Xenakis’ first monument dedicated to percussion. Six percussionists surround the audience, producing an ultra-powerful work, Persephassa, Persephone, goddess of birth, of the force of nature. The brutality is actually a meticulously organized chaos: its formalisms, sieve theory, the composer-mathematician plans the space, varies the symmetries, controls densities, periodicity, accelerations, and overlapping speeds for the same material.
The perspective of Maresz’ gargantuan Festin is entirely different: taming the infinite combinations of 12 percussionists through pitch logic, giving birth to a new orchestra, unimagined until today.
Michel Cerutti © Anne Oster-Roustang- Yan Maresz Festin
- Iannis Xenakis Persephassa
- Wolfgang Rihm Tutuguri VI
Ensemble de percussions du Cnsmdp
Conductor Michel Cerutti
An IRCAM-Centre Pompidou, Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et danse de Paris coproduction. IRCAM and the CENTQUATRE are partners for experimental performance projects.