LUCIA RONCHETTI action music pieces Michele Marco Rossi Christian Dierstein Ensemble intercontemporain Matthias Pintscher Orchestra della Toscana Luca Pfaff LUCIA RONCHETTI (*1963) 1 Le Palais du silence (2013) Drammaturgia after Claude Debussy for ensemble 11:54 2 Helicopters and butterflies (2012) solo for an operatic percussionist based on “The Gambler” by Fyodor Dostoevsky 16:05 3 Forward and downward, turning neither to the left nor to the right, for solo cello (2017) Action concert piece after Plutarch and Kàroly Kerényi for solo cellist, New version arranged by Michele Marco Rossi 18:51 4 Lacus timoris (2015) Drammaturgia for solo timpani 10:06 5 Rumori da monumenti (2015) A study of Johannesburg for recorded voice and chamber orchestra (new version), text by Ivan Vladislavic (based on fragments from “Portrait with Keys”) 18:06 TT 75:03 Ensemble intercontemporain Matthias Pintscher conductor Christian Dierstein percussionist Michele Marco Rossi cellist Orchestra della Toscana Luca Pfaff conductor 1 Commissioned by Festival d’Automne à Paris and Ensemble intercontemporain 4 Commissioned by Nationaltheater Mannheim 5 Commissioned by Orchestra della Toscana 2 Ensemble intercontemporain Orchestra della Toscana Sophie Cherrier fl u t e Fabio Fabbrizzi fl u t e Emmanuelle Ophèle bassfl ute Alessio Galiazzo oboe Jérôme Comte clarinet Marco Ortolani, Alfredo Vena clarinet Alain Billard bass clarinet Umberto Codecà bassoon Jens McManama horn Paolo Faggi horn Jean-Christophe Vervoitte horn Donato De Sena, Guido Guidarelli trumpet Clément Saunier trumpet Giorgio Bornacina trombone Jean-Lacques Gaudon trumpet Morgan Tortelli, Tommaso Ferrieri Caputi percussion Jérôme Naulais trombone Andrea Tacchi, Daniele Giorgi, Chiara Morandi, Paolo Gaiani violin Gilles Durot percussion Stefano Zanobini, Caterina Cioli viola Samuel Favre percussion Luca Provenzani, Augusto Gasbarri, Stefano Battistini, Victor Hanna percussion Giovanni Simeone violoncello Jeanne-Marie Conquer violin Amerigo Bernardi, Luigi Giannoni doublebass Hae-Sun Kang violin Odile Auboin viola Luca Pfaff conductor Grégoire Simon viola Pierre Strauch violoncello Nicolas Crosse doublebass Matthias Pintscher conductor Recording venues: 1 Cité de la musique, 2 4 Ensemblehaus Freiburg, 3 Abbey Rocchi Studio, 5 Teatro Verdi Recording dates: 1 8 Nov 2013, 2 4 5 Nov 2016, 3 11 Feb 2017, 5 25 Sep 2015 Sound director: 1 Philippe Cabon Sound engineers: 1 Olivia Branger, Julien Bourdais, Alexandre Martin Recording engineers: 1 Sylvain Leconte, 2 4 Reinhold Braig, 3 Tommaso Cancellieri, 5 Marco Capaccioni Final CD-Mastering: Christoph Amann Executive producer: 1 Jean-Claude Mullet Recording supervisor: 1 Elsa Biston Publishers: 1 Edizione musicali Rai Trade, 2 4 Edizioni musicali Rai Trade (RTC 4318), 3 Rai Production: Andreas Karl Booklet editor: Eva Hausegger Graphic Design: Alexander Kremmers (paladino media), cover based on artwork by Enrique Fuentes (Centralizacion 2, 2011) 3 © Stefano Corso action music pieces of the literal translation of the ancient Starting from the “absence” of Debussy’s by Roman Reeger Greek word skené (hut, tent), before the unwritten score, Ronchetti refers to the backdrop of which gestures and images attempts he made elsewhere to transfer can be seen and have their effect as such. “silent landscapes” to sound; landscapes It is just such a “stage beyond the stage” that, as abandoned places, render the ab- that serves as the performative locus of sence of those persons who may once have those works to which Ronchetti gives the passed through them perceptible, rather label “drammaturgia”: experiments that like footprints in an otherwise untouched straddle the border between music the- snowy landscape. The centrally placed, un- atre and instrumental music, “concentrat- covered piano makes clear Debussy’s si- ed scenes” that acoustically evoke spaces, multaneous presence and absence. And it atmospheres, and figures. Not infrequent- is in this “laboratory of Debussy”, as Ronch- ly, these “scenes in sound” are associated etti puts it, that the lowest notes origi- with the spatial arrangement and seman- nate, rising upward through the registers For over 20 years now, music theatre has tic attributions of the individual instru- as they are taken over and worked with been a focus in the compositional work ments as well as with the “roles” of their by the ensembles’ instruments. Right at and explorations of Lucia Ronchetti, who players. the beginning, three percussionists beat was born in Rome in 1963. Alongside her a sextuplet-figure on the bottom edge of numerous, formally quite diverse cham- Silent Landscapes the piano’s frame, a figure that can soon ber operas and the “grand” opera Esame be recognised as the main motif from di mezzanotte, Ronchetti’s oeuvre has also For the drammaturgia Le Palais du silence, Debussy’s Le vent dans la plaine from his seen the crystallisation of several addition- commissioned and premièred in 2013 first book of Préludes, an illustration of al, genre-blurring categories of music the- by Ensemble intercontemporain under Debussy’s compositional search for new atre: choral operas, action concert pieces, the baton of Matthias Pintscher, Ronch- sounds. The relationship between sound soundtracks, and radio plays. All of these etti chose a setup featuring an uncov- and silence is manifested again later on in have in common the presence of a theatri- ered grand piano ensconced in two semi- the piece in the form of quoted passages cal idea that need not adhere to a classical circular rows of instrumentalists. This from Debussy’s Des pas sur la neige [“Foot- narrative programme, instead manifest- work’s title refers to an unrealised bal- prints in the Snow”], La Cathédrale englout- ing a “scenic” formal character in the sense let project of Claude Debussy from 1914. ie [“The Submerged Cathedral”], Le vent 5 dans la plaine [“The wind over the plains”], sembles or sometimes even soloists, that The soloist represents various characters and Jardins sous la pluie [“Garden in the exhibit a situational and concrete charac- in the novel, above all the central figure of Rain”] – all of these piano works that, ex- ter frequently inspired by literary models. Alexei as well as the family matriarch, lend- cept for the basic impulses touched off The dynamic and compositional dispo- ing them voices using selected passag- by the percussionists hitting the piano, al- sition of Helicopters and butterflies refers es from the text. The text’s dramatization most always appear cloaked in the instru- to Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “The Gambler” unites with the composed scenery, which mental tone colours of the ensemble until (1867). This strongly autobiographical takes on concrete form via the percus- Cloches à travers les feuilles [“Bells Through novel – which Dostoyevsky wrote in just sion instruments’ spatial arrangement: the the Leaves”] makes its first appearance in 26 days – tells the story of first-person nar- lonely hotel room inhabited by the player the piano part shortly before the piece rator Alexei Ivanovich, the destitute pri- is implied by hanging found objects (old concludes. In Ronchetti’s score, Debussy’s vate tutor of a bankrupt Russian gener- wooden chests, an old spring mattress, a composed pictures of abandoned land- al who begins playing roulette out of love sink, wooden boards, scraps of wallpaper, scapes take on a certain presence in their for the general’s stepdaughter Polina and etc.). The scenery’s vertical arrangement, ephemerality. They are akin to imaginary, soon develops a gambling addiction. The on the other hand, shows how Ronchetti’s silhouette-like shapes that appear and bankrupt general, for his part, hopes for compositional structure is by no means quickly disappear like the final words of an the death of his aunt, from whom he ex- geared solely to describing the original actor on a theatre stage. Le Palais du silence pects to inherit money. She, however, ap- text. The percussionist performs on three thus sees Ronchetti reflect on the proces- pears suddenly in the middle of the nov- spatial levels: on the lowest one with tap sual nature of composing using the exam- el to expose the ignoble character of her dancing shoes tapping against the marble, ple of Debussy (on whose music she wrote entire despised family and cut them down stone, and wooden floor elements, on the her dissertation) while also providing her to size, after which she proceeds to gam- middle one using the contents of the “ho- listener with an impressive demonstration ble away her entire fortune herself at the tel room” and a dulcimer for self-accom- of the phenomenon of musical absence. roulette table. For Lucia Ronchetti, “the panied singing of Russian folk songs (af- rhythm of The Gambler” is characterised ter Igor Stravinsky), and on the upper level The Exhilaration of the Game by a “complex accelerando shaping events with the roulette wheel placed at its cen- that lead inexorably to a tragic conclu- tre and played upon with gambling chips, Helicopters and butterflies (2012) is one of sion”. She therefore places key roulette ta- 10- and 20-cent euro coins, and a mar- Ronchetti’s action concert pieces – music ble scenes in the focus of this “micro music ble ball. These three levels work together theatre miniatures, written for smaller en- theatre” project for one solo percussionist. to symbolise the existential vertical ten- 6 sion in the main character, who is trapped if I was interested in a work for a per- chips and tried to find the sounds of a between loneliness, the reality of the ho- cussion playing, talking and danc- roulette ball with bowls and tambou- tel room, and the hopes and dreams that ing performer. Our first meeting took rines. I also had to improve the scaf- he associates with the roulette wheel. The place a year before the premiere at the folding to a degree that I was com- percussionist thus becomes a stage per- festival d’automne in Paris, whose di- fortable moving around on all its former in Ronchetti’s score, transforming rector, Josephine Markovits, enabled levels, following Pippi Longstocking’s the concert situation into an audio drama this project.