Part of the BBC Proms. With its 98 players dispersed among the audience, Xenakis's Nomos gamma should make a stunning Proms piece, not least as the final drumrolls from its eight percussionists ricochet around the Arena. Both Aïs – a searing setting of ancient Greek texts by Homer and Sappho, with a wildly wide-ranging vocal line – and Rachmaninov's Stygian tonepoem, composed a century ago, confront the transience of life and the finality of death, while Shostakovich's 1945 Ninth seems almost to laugh off the horrors of war. A former New Generation Artist, percussionist Colin Currie also appears in our NGA 10th-Anniversary Weekend (PCM 7) and in Prom 33.| 2 Sep 09 | Royal Albert Hall Inner London, Greater London Performance Details => Venue archive |
