POLES

With POLES, Karlheinz Stockhausen created an ‘open score’ in which music was reduced to polar positions, with all notes transcribed as either pluses or minuses. This reduction of process opened performances up to simple but effective variations, the score ultimately becoming a long series of interactive inputs. The work was crafted for two players and sound diffusion, offering a flexible instrumental set-up; in this concert, flutist Camilla Hoitenga and synth player Taavi Kerikmäe deliver a historically faithful performance, suggesting both the potential deviations and inevitable constraints that exist in Stockhausen’s composition.