ABSTRACT
In 1969, after completing Persephassa, Xenakis embarked upon his first concertante work, for piano and orchestra. Synaphaï, meaning “connexities,” was commissioned by the Pro Arte Symphony of Hofstra University in the United States, but was premiered at the 1971 Royan Festival by French pianist Georges Pludermacher with the Orchestre Philharmonique de l’ORTF, led by the young Swiss conductor Michel Tabachnik.1 There are similarities to earlier works, so it is likely that group-theory techniques played some part in the compositional process. Xenakis, though, was interested in exploring something new. Synaphaï manifests two aspects of the notion of continuity, involving the musical material and the formal construction.
