A special edition focusing on the Greek-born, French composer Iannis Xenakis. Working as an architect with Le Corbusier after the Second World War, Xenakis developed a radical musical style based on the principles and sounds of nature. As a major Xenakis festival opens in London 's South Bank, Tom Service talks to those who knew him well and to the musicians who play his mesmeric music.
In this programme
Iannis Xenakis
A special edition of Music Matters dedicated to the life and work of Greek composer, Iannis Xenakis .
Xenakis's life story is an astonishing tale of triumph over adversity.
His mother died when he was just 5 years old, after which he went to boarding school and developed his love for mathematics, ancient philosophy, electronics and architecture.
During the war, he fought for the Greek resistance and sustained a horrific disfiguring injury when English shrapnel took one of his eyes and the left side of his face.
In 1947, he fled Greece under a death-threat from the Greek government and was unable to return until the end of military rule in 1974.
His plans to go to America were thwarted, so he settled in Paris and remained in France for the rest of his life.
In Paris , Xenakis became absorbed in his two great passions - music and architecture. He worked for the architect Le Corbusier and concentrated on developing his distinct compositional style.
As London 's South Bank Centre prepares for a weekend celebration of Xenakis's music, Xenakis - Architect in Sound , Music Matters hears from many of the key figures associated with his life and music.
Tom is joined by Xenakis's friend and biographer, Nouritza Matossian, the pianist Nicolas Hodges and the conductor Guy Prothero, who has performed much of Xenakis's ensemble music with his group, Spectrum. Together, they consider the multi-faceted world of Iannis Xenakis.
Illuminating Xenakis the man are his daughter Makhi Xenakis, the harpsichordist Elizabeth Chojnacka, the Greek conductor Theodor Antoniou, the pianist Roger Woodward and the baritone Spyros Sakkas. They reveal a man whose whole life was a fight for survival, a man who so needed to make the most of every moment that he literally had to run from one place to the next.
But, what does Xenakis's life story reveal about his music? Roger Woodward, the violinist Irvine Arditti, Elizabeth Chojnacka and Spyros Sakkas, all performers for whom Xenakis wrote some of his most challenging pieces, talk about their own experience of the composer and his music.
To hear and read more about Xenakis's music:
Xenakis - Architect in Sound . 7 th -9 th October 2005 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room.
You can hear music from the festival on BBC Radio 3 's Hear and Now (15 th & 22 nd October) and Performance on 3 (19 th October).
Xenakis by Nouritza Matossian. Pub. Moufflon Publications, will be relaunched at London 's Hellenic Centre on 27 th November.
