Giacinto Scelsi

This marks not only the first volume in Mode’s new Scelsi Edition, but also the initial disc of the traversal of his piano works.

Written in 1939, Scelsi’s Second Sonata was premiered by Yvar Mikhashoff on 1979 in London. Marking a new compositional tendency, Scelsi suspended thematic development and frequently introduced various kinds of repetitions: reiterated single tones, chords, and patterns, often suggesting the sounds of bells or Oriental gongs. Scelsi chose extreme dynamics and timbres, extensively exploring the piano’s rich harmonics in its low and treble registers.

The Fourth Sonata of 1941 was written at the end of Scelsi’s first creative period and also premiered by Yvar Mikhashoff in 1986 at the Almeida Festival in London. Mikhashoff considered it a “beautiful and dark elegy, one of the composer’s most deeply felt creations.” Employing principles from his Second Sonata, it focuses on single pitches and their reiteration.

Scelsi characterized Ttai as “a succession of episodes alternately expressing Time and Man, as symbolized by cathedrals or monasteries, with the sacred sound of, Om.” Emphasizing the suite’s calm, meditative and mysterious character, Scelsi wondered if this piece should be played at conventional concerts at all, and advised in its preface: “This suite should be listened to and played with the greatest inner calm. Nervous people stay away!” It features low contrasting musical material, repetitive elements, stationary tones and chords, and blurred sounds due to the frequent use of both pedals. The music manifests both constant flow and inertia, and since Scelsi rarely used bar-lines, it seems to unfold in an almost unrestrained manner. Like the Second and Fourth Sonatas, it received its premiere more than two decades after its origin in 1976 by Frederic Rzewski in Rome.

Louise Bessette, piano