CLAUDIO AMBROSINI — Chamber Music
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CLAUDIO AMBROSINI Chamber Music Sonia Visentin Ex Novo Ensemble © Paolo Della Corte Claudio Ambrosini ( *1948 ) 1 De vulgari eloquentia ( 1984 ) 16:55 2 Icaros ( 1981 ) 07:18 3 A guisa di un arcier presto soriano ( 1981 ) 05:33 4 Rondò di forza ( 1981 ) 04:25 5 Rousseau, le Douanier: “Follia d’Orlando” ( 1983 ) 07:53 6 “Oh, mia Euridice…” a fragment ( 1981 ) 08:15 7 Prélude a l’après-midi d’un fauve ( 1994 ) 08:33 8 Tutti parlano ( 1993 ) 06:54 TT 65:51 8 Sonia Visentin, soprano 1 – 8 Ex Novo Ensemble Daniele Ruggieri, flute Carlo Lazari, violin and viola Carlo Teodoro, cello Davide Teodoro, clarinet Aldo Orvieto, piano 3 C. Ambrosini, A guisa d’un arcier presto soriano, for flute (1981) 4 Claudio Ambrosini, or utopian virtuosity. ties of the flute as combined with po- Radical research coincides with re- etry by Cavalcanti, another intangible flection on the distant past. Reflection reference, a mere intellectual solicita- only in the mind, not to be found in his tion. Passion for “fauve” painting might musical language. Indeed, there are invert the meaning of the reference no references or memories. The illumi- to Mallarmé (touching upon futuristic nation of history is only imaginary and, hyperbole). And then again, the voice at most, indicates research divorced arising from the melée and the experi- from recent tradition but which evokes ence of instruments. the distant Middle Ages. In this anthology, which is a portrait of “Vulgar” contrasted to “Latin” implies his compositional tendencies, Claudio discovery of a new language that Ambrosini is actually one of the most takes performance techniques to the da ring creators of utopian virtuosi- extreme. The acrobatics of a solo vi- ty, a virtuosity which is grounded in olin are like the flapping of wings in the invention of multi-formal, luminous, which the temerarious myth of Icaros permutable, nocturnal sound, giving reappears, a dream that burns in the prerogative to an exasperation of ex- light. Eurydice is a fragment in which tremes and matured in the workshop the sound of a clarinet blends with of the Ex Novo Ensemble, a perma- the sound of the voice, a metaphor of nently active workshop of constantly Baroque performance practices that, renewed research. It is also a dream of however, remain allusive. The Rondò is a liminal avantgarde that favors torren- a form that contains the idea of a ges- tial energy but at times opens up into a tural, violent, fractured, precipitous pi- voluble undercurrent of song: a furtive ano beyond the very limits of the in- shadow of Maderna appears. strument. A painting never painted by Rousseau suggests an almost sur- real study for clarinet, the rediscov- Mario Messinis ( 2004 ) ery of sound as an untried hypothe- sis: sound entirely reinvented, typical Translated from Italian by of Ambrosini, is found in the subtle- Marlene Klein 5 Musical instruments fascinate me. Naturally, my research was not limit- I consider them to be living beings. I ed to new technical possibilities or the like to listen to them, and they seem means of notating them. It included is- to suggest something to me, giving me sues of form (closely related to ener- hints, showing me possible new paths. gy management), the creation of a tim- I like to think that I make music with bral “perspective” and the study of the the instruments, that I bring my ideas psycho-perceptive processes that in- to life together with them. fluence listening. But I do not believe in research that ends at the micro- Thus, from the end of the 70s, I car- scope, in the laboratory, at phenom- ried out systematic research into in- enology. Instead, I believe that what struments: woodwinds, brass, strings, Dante, in his Vita nova, called “volunta- plucked strings, keyboards, percus- de di dire” ( desire to convey ) must al- sion... investigating them one by one ways be present, deve loping different and presenting the results first in a se- stimuli, at times drawn from other ex- ries of solo pieces, then gradually in pressive forms such as literature or art. larger ensembles, like the trios and It is also what characterizes the works the quintet on this CD. here which, though performed interna- tionally, are currently unpublished. Claudio Ambrosini ( 2020 ) Translated from Italian by Liam Mac Gabhann 6 Notes on the single pieces De vulgari eloquentia is the title of a The composer imagines he is follo- structure. From an instrumental point book by Dante Alighieri where he un- wing Icarus’ flight, investigating the of view, he yields the results of his re- derlined the power the “vernacular” possibility of conveying the idea of search on the flute, employing nume- had achieved, to the point that it was movement in space, but without phy- rous techniques which were comple- capable of replacing Latin, the domi- sically displacing the performer. Just tely new in 1981, when the work was nant language. Ambrosini gives his over half way into the piece, one can composed. And some of them still are. reinterpretation of the title, linking it perceive the protagonist’s departure to the moment when an artist reali- to the point where he almost vanis- zes that his own language has taken hes into the sky. Then, like a cinematic Rondò di forza, another piece on the shape, has reached expressive ma- zoom, the listener is so close as to he- continuous transformation of energy, turity. In addition to new instrumental ar him panting. is also from 1981. In this new type of techniques, among the ideas propo- rondo, Ambrosini focuses on an extre- sed in this piece are “perspective co- mely “rapid flow” of short, sometimes ne” (with the piano in the foreground) A guisa di un arcier presto soriano ( In instantaneous thematic cells, which and “timbral light”. the guise of a swift Syrian archer ) is expand, contract and overlap, giving inspired by a line from a sonnet by rise to “virtual” polyphonies ( i.e. “that Guido Cavalcanti. The medieval poet, appear not on paper, but to the ear”, Icaros, the labyrinth, for Ambrosini the speaking of the arrows shot by Cupid, as Luigi Nono, who attended a perfor- irresistible yet burning charm of light is compares the god to a swift Syrian ar- mance, wrote ). also an allegory for the artist’s conditi- cher – presto in Italian means fast – al- on, for his courageous and sometimes ways ready to hurt, and even kill, his unsuccessful flight. The “labyrinth” victims. Rousseau, le Douanier: “Follia d’Or- can also be represented by an instru- lando” instead, proposes another ment, and by History. The “walls” that Here the composer gives life to a nar- conceptual game or exercise: imagi- enclose it are ideas, which can, howe- rative dense with images yet abstract ning, through sounds, a painting that ver, be transformed into wings. and independent from the sonnet‘s a well-known artist never actually 7 painted. Henri Rousseau, who created Prélude a l’après-midi d’un fauve. In Tutti parlano. ( Everyone speaks ) A po- landscapes such as La Charmeuse de many ways, Ambrosini likes to consi- em by the painter Virgilio Guidi, an ex- serpents or La Bohémienne endormie, der himself a “Fauve”. But the pictori- ponent of Roman “Magic realism” and never painted the Roncesvalles gor- al reference could also be extended later, in Venice, of research into space ge, inhabited only by the madness of from Matisse to the Cobra Group, Ly- and light. Orlando... rical Abstraction and Venetian Arte In- fromale of the post-war period, and CIRS ( Centro Internazionale per could include expressions based on la Ricerca Strumentale ) With “Oh, mia Euridice…” A fragment the intense manifestation of energy the composer again seeks something (and not only of the “explosive” kind Translated from Italian by different: that the audience should but also that of Rothko, for example). Liam Mac Gabhann think they are listening to the only sur- And the internal transformations wit- viving piece of a lost work (as is the hin the sounds here could remind us of case of Monteverdi’s Lamento di Ari- something else: dense and luminous anna). The opera did not exist at that textures as in Gerhard Richter or the time; three years later, Ambrosini was dried up, sandy textures of Anselm to write Orfeo, l’ennesimo. Orpheus is Kiefer … the clarinettist in this rendition of the myth, at a certain point, he invokes Eurydice singing into and outside his instrument. 8 ( TUTTI PARLANO ) EVERYONE SPEAKS Everyone, everyone speaks the whole world speaks: an immense voice, convulsive, agitated “I feel music as energy. Composing on the surface of the earth. means inventing a formal identity for Up above, up above, high above sounds; it is creating, conveying and there is silence. conserving energy (set in motion at Who knows why? the beginning of a piece) until the form If by some caprice of mystery, has been completed. And energy, of a voice, a momentary voice course, is not just force; there is ener- descended from on high, gy in the sweetest things, in caresses, silence would be full here, in silences.” the silence that speaks of eternity. Claudio Ambrosini ( 1980 ) Virgilio Guidi ( 1970 ) Translated from Italian by Translated from Italian by Liam Mac Gabhann Marlene Klein 9 Claudio Ambrosini Künste ( Berlin ); further at the War- Among the recent awards: saw Musical Autumn, the Maggio Mu- 2006: Beaumarchais Grant ( Paris ) sicale ( Florence ), at the “Perspectives and du XX siècle” ( Radio France ), L’Itin- 2008: Music Theatre Now Prize eraire ( Paris ), GRAME ( Lyon ) and sev- ( Berlin ) for his opera Il canto eral other festivals in Europe, America, della pelle - Sex Unlimited.