Charles Curtis performing Éliane Radigue’s Naldjorlak, Megaron, The Athens Concert Hall, documenta 14, photo: Stathis Mamalakis
Éliane Radigue, Naldjorlak, for cello
Performed by Charles Curtis, cello
Éliane Radigue (born 1932) is a French composer best known for her intricate and compelling compositions on tape using the Arp 2500 synthesizer. These compositions were first presented in the late 1960s and remain her most known works to date. After more than 30 years of involvement with electronic music, she began writing music for acoustic instruments in 2001. Her first acoustic piece of this kind, titled Naldjorlak, is the result of a close collaboration with cellist Charles Curtis, and which later evolved into a trio including two bassoons. Delicate in its dynamic range, the work explores highly diffuse bowed textures that defy perceptual focus; the hidden, untamed ur-sonority of the cello is revealed as a deeply unstable and complex source. The three-part structure of the piece transcends traditional hierarchies of composition and performance, instead illuminating the natural characteristics of the instrument and the space in which the performance takes place in.
A coproduction of documenta 14 and The Athens Concert Hall Organization