MUSIC REVIEW : Xenakis Works, Out of Doors, on Salk Institute’s North Lawn

An expanse of green lawn, the size and shape of a city block, overlooking the Pacific Ocean at sunset. Overhead, a blue, cloudless sky. Rising from the East, a near-full moon.

Arranged around a central seating area are 16 loudspeakers, broadcasting a full spectrum of electronic sounds, from under-whispers to full industrial blasts.

In this setting, on the north lawn of the Salk Institute at UC San Diego on Sunday afternoon, Iannis Xenakis’ “La Legende d’Eer” (1977), a work originally incorporating laser technology and mirrors, was revived.

The 5 p.m. concert--including a meal break at intermission--offered also the U.S. premiere of “Voyage Absolu des Unari vers Andromede” for electronic sounds and kites, and “Rebonds” for solo percussion.

At this penultimate event of the now-concluded “Xenakis at UCSD” festival, “Legende” made a stunning impression, aided in no small way by the physical situation.

Eight minutes into the 45-minute sound-construct, the sun set. The remainder was heard, with only natural lighting, in the quickly darkening twilight. The audience, an informal group of about 100 rapt listeners, sat, stood and lay down on the grass through the work. Their concentration seemed total.

Xenakis’ pieces have this kind of effect on listeners. After one accepts his concept of grating, sometimes pain-approaching noise, as well as ambient sounds as apprehendable music, the ingenuity of his creations can become clear. The mathematical planning and minute detailing lavished on each work certainly obviate any haphazardness; this the listener senses.

In a spoken program note before the performance, Xenakis said the piece had its premiere at the opening of the Pompidou Centre in Paris, later traveled to Germany and Marseilles.

“Now, it is dying on the (California) shore,” the composer/architect commented.

Hardly. Vitality, not death, is the subject of the piece, which recounts the story of Eer, who was killed in battle, but came to life again, days later, and told of visiting the other world, from where he was sent back.

Even without lasers and mirrors--the production team, headed by Joe Kucera, put on the piece without extra technology, when the price of such technology reached $10,000, a spokesperson for UCSD said--the sound essay itself makes sense. To be surrounded by varied, contrasting, colorful and imagination-resonant sounds in a natural environment can become an extraordinary event.

The year-old “Voyage,” created last year for a kite festival in Japan, turned out to be more visual, similarly stimulating. It is an electronic score accompanied by two large super-kites--each incorporating a dozen individual flying parts, with tails of perhaps 20-foot length. These are operated by kite masters--at this event, Hyper-Kites of San Diego--who improvise to the sound-score.

In full sunlight, “Voyage” sounded and looked perfectly engaging through its quarter-hour length.

Steven Schick, the virtuoso percussionist who had played two works on the Saturday-night program, moved outdoors Sunday afternoon for “Rebonds,” another demanding showpiece that he performed from memory, and with fascinating theatricality.

Schick has an actor’s concentration and a dancer’s physical control. He makes no motion without motivation, describes the music with his body, and yet does not distract from the aural experience. “Rebonds”is neither very long nor inordinately complex; it seems, instead, perfectly constructed. Schick played it with a wondrous and projected sense of its genuine importance.