Les espaces acoustiques / NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

»No more composing with notes but rather with tones« is how French composer Gérard Grisey summarised the musical language of »Les espaces acoustiques« (Acoustic Spaces). As the title suggests, Grisey explores different acoustic spaces in the six pieces of his cycle. In the 1970s he explored the inner life of sounds on his computer, made the overtones found within audible and used them for his compositions, thus becoming one of the founders of the timbre-based style known as »spectral music«. His largest ever undertaking, »Les espaces acoustiques« celebrates the art of transition: each acoustic space extends the previous one, thus the music slowly swells from a solo viola to a huge orchestral sound. In the finale concert of the »Greatest Hits« festival, the monumental work shines resplendent with its display of the acoustical spectrum in the crystal-clear acoustics of Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall.