Orchestral Sessions Phase 2 - Works by Scelsi, Xenakis, Takemitsu, Caspi

A full string orchestra and seventeen gongs converge in Halle am Berghain for the second edition of Orchestral Sessions. This program brings together the meditative intensity of Giacinto Scelsi, the Tectonic structures of Iannis Xenakis, and the quiet luminosity of Tōru Takemitsu’s Requiem, alongside a new work by Berlin based conductor and composer Avi Caspi. Performed in total darkness, within the stripped geometry of Halle am Berghain the evening emphasizes sound as physical presence; immersive, immediate, and unadorned where orchestral music is infused with the spatial and emotional logic of the club. Scelsi’s symphonic sorcery moves through microtonal vibration and trance inducing resonance. His work treats sound as a living, breathing entity; less composed than conjured. Xenakis, by contrast, channels architecture and mathematics into vast sonic forms governed by stochastic processes and physical force . Between them, Takemitsu’s Requiem offers a space of study in restraint, silence, and sustained intensity. Caspi’s composition for handmade gongs, blurring the line between percussion and atmosphere, provokes seismic structures from within the body of the orchestra itself.

Program:

Tōru Takemitsu: Requiem
Iannis Xenakis: Voile
Giacinto Scelsi: Ohoi - "Les Principes créatifs”, Anāgāmin
Avi Caspi: Gong Concerto, Séance

Two additional new works written especially for the concert - one for solo gong and orchestra and the other for a gong ensemble and orchestra.