The French-American composer Edgard Varèse transformed the sound of twentieth-century music. He excluded stringed instruments, focused on percussion and even composed the very first work solely for percussion instruments in 1930. Now, eighty years after its composition,Ionisation still comes across as a compelling and vibrant work. Asko|Schönberg and Percussion The Hague (Slagwerk Den Haag) highlight the rhythmic impulse that manifested itself in music in the first half of the twentieth century. Varèse was fascinated by the mechanical aspect of pure sound while Igor Stravinsky opened the door to swinging jazz and blues influences with his diabolical Histoire du soldat.

Artists

EDGARD VARÈSE
Hyperprism (arr. Richard Sacks)
Ionisation
IGOR STRAVINSKY
Suite from Histoire du Soldat

ASKO|SCHÖNBERG
SLAGWERK DEN HAAG 
conductor
Etienne Siebens