Edgar Varese - Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra

Ionisation

Edgar Varese
Arcana, Integrales and Ionisation
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
Music Director: William Kraft
Conducted By Zubin Mehta
London CS 6752
1972

From the back cover: Ionisation (1931) Because it employs only percussion instruments and sirens, "Ionisation" is one of the most radical of Varese's works. Although, once again, no programmatic content is intended, the piece seems to evoke the sounds and harsh reality of city life, in contrast to the sounds of nature, favoured by Debussy and others. Varese has said: Every age has its characteristic sounds"; in harnessing the sounds around him to musical use he has shown himself to be a composer very much of his time.