octobe r2019 80 ESZ news Edizioni Suvini Zerboni - Fourmonthly Newsletter Imaginative Spans This Autumn sees four world premieres for Alessandro heavy mute, the third, vice versa, a strong and “symphonic” Solbiati. The series starts on October 1 , when the Quartetto attack and the fourth a pulsating and dancing backbone. i Prometeo will play the Quarto Quartetto for strings, in the Since each movement led in its own way to a melodic t Sala delle Colonne di Ca’ Giustinian in Venice, during the element, in the fifth movement I decided to turn things around a rd i La Biennale, 63 Festival Internazionale di Musica and start with a heterophonic melody that passes like a fil b Contemporanea, which commissioned the work. The rouge through reminiscences of the previous movements, l composition was presented in the last number of ESZ News. to give the whole a sense of unity, and in homage to the o Still in Venice, on October 23 , in the Sale Apollinee of the incomparable eighth and last Valse noble et sentimentale S Gran Teatro La Fenice, during the Ex Novo Musica series, the by Ravel, a composer that is always unavoidable and first complete performance of Cinque movimenti for violin and unreachable, but more especially in his writing for the duo o r cello will be played by soloists of the Ex Novo Ensemble. The violin and cello». Commissioned by the Teatro Comunale di composer tells us: «The composition of Cinque movimenti for Bologna, Sinopia for orchestra will be given its world premiere d violin and cello started in 2018 out of purely personal on October 26 in the Teatro Manzoni, with the Orchestra del n necessity, not linked to any commission, the need for a Teatro Comunale di Bologna conducted by Asher Fisch. a serious synthesis of imagination and form: to “dry out” a clear Solbiati explains: «The title Sinopia tells us almost too clearly s Four premieres but complex narrative and figural path within a series of that the piece “alludes to other”, namely, that it is a broad s and prestigious sections lasting just a few minutes and with a minimal preparatory study for an even larger work with a theatrical e commissions from l instrumentation. There was no overall plan, at the start, and character that I have had in my mind and heart for many Venice and Bologna A precisely the fact that each movement had been written years. Sinopia is therefore the synthesis (albeit of separately in the course of over a year and for unforeseen considerable length, nearly a quarter of an hour) of a precise and diverse destinations ( Ouverture as written for the Ex Novo and complex narrative path, following its phases and for the 70 th birthday of my friend Claudio Ambrosini, the accentuating, if possible, its energies, exactly as if the second movement for the Ned Ensemble, the third and fourth sketched outline of a “sinopia”, without the softness of colour became a commission from the Pinacoteca di Brera for their and pictorial detail, sometimes speaks with greater force of own celebration last June) made each movement totally the character of the future fresco. As I don’t want Sinopia to independent and quite richly characterized. That is, these are be listened to as a symphonic poem, I won’t reveal what it not short pieces each based on a single idea, but rather five describes; I will limit myself to indicating the path taken by the formal and imaginative spans that are complete and complex, “energies” of the piece, a piece that should result quite free of even though each piece has a centre of interest: the first a any extra-musical reference. It starts with a strong and solemn progressive extension of the register that gradually reveals the gesture, based on isochronic chords on the brass, and identity of the two instruments, the second the global use of a however marked from the outset by a destiny of abyss and continues on page 2 Explosive Thoughts On September 28 in the Sala delle Colonne di Ca’ own sake the idea of the “new economy” that strangles you Giustinian, the Biennale di Venezia, 63 rd Festival until you are dead, here we are, then, rewriting Macbeth! And Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea, hosted the world especially the witches, we invoke them from the depth of our o premiere of Dove non si tocca in mare for cello and string personal hell because there is nothing left to do except boldly d orchestra, commissioned by the Biennale. It was performed face this human sacrifice and only Hecate can give us the a by Michele Marco Rossi and the Solisti Aquilani directed by strength. Everything must be thrown into the cauldron, even r the composer, who explains: « Dove non si tocca in mare the spurious pieces that can give birth to male children who r expresses the anxiety experienced when we realize we are will go and generate other deliberations, other high streets or o not able to dominate nature, deviate it, manipulate it, manage little frequented nocturnal alleys. “Ugo, let’s run through the C it. Like when we are in the open sea and can no longer touch text and select the most important parts” – Luigi tells me – the sand beneath our feet. Like when we realize that there is “let’s just make a summary, what more do we want to say that e l no escape from what happens and confronts us. The piece poor William hasn’t already said?”. But on reading and re- a consists of one long stretch in which the cello observes and reading also the most obscure parts, those that everyone New orchestral work u reacts to the different situations, sometimes contrasting the cuts, that is to say, even opening any edition and pointing your at the Biennale and q orchestral mass, at others allowing itself to be transported by finger on a word by chance, we feel breaths of air, harmonies, a new opera at the s the current, but always alert to the changes occurring and sudden pangs, sounds of birds that fill the countryside that Comunale di Bologna a careful of the deformations in space and time that the existed before the crowded city from which we write. A extraordinary natural events can bring about». On October countryside of the soul emerges, then, from the scattered P 10 at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the series Bologna pages; the intertwined languages of different translations are Modern will include the world premiere of Macbeth Alone , a literary and alchemical Babel that once again puts you up opera for two sopranos, two baritones and ensemble to a against the wall in front of the unrepeatable unthinkable and libretto by Ugo Giacomazzi and Luigi Di Gangi. It will be on the fragment of a thousand ancient and modern fragments. performed by the soloists Maurizio Leoni, Gabriele Lombardi, You would never have said it, but how you would have loved Valentina Coladonato and Francesca Pacileo, and the to be English at this moment and spit on everything and in the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna conducted by the face of all those who have adapted this text in the fashion of composer. The authors of the music and the libretto introduce their own ephemeral time, sewing it vulgarly together: flowery the new work: «Having abandoned of necessity and for our languages, essential, poetic, actorial, Gassman, Quasimodo, continues on page 2 from page 1 (Alessandro Solbiati: Imaginative Spans) dissolution, since the force becomes violent and collapses into a Chanson d’aube , transcription for flute and guitar of Dawn , was rarefied episode of fragments and silences, in which all sense of performed by Carlotta Raponi and Andrea Dinapoli in the Salotto discourse is lost and everything seems to float on the emptiness. in Prova in Milan. Vivente for ten instruments went on tour with An unexpected luminous spark triggers an isochronic movement, the Divertimento Ensemble, under the baton of the conductors almost a pace, guided by the line of the cor anglais, and selected from the XV Corso di Direzione d’Orchestra for the early traversed by shivers, encounters and episodes that culminate in 20 th century repertoire, on September 12 at the Teatro Comunale three powerful events, each brusquely interrupted at the end. The in Moncalvo, on September 15 at the Tenuta Santa Caterina in third interruption leads into a sublimated and impalpable finale, Grazzano Badoglio and on September 18 at the Teatro Litta in ritual and interior, though not without restless human echoes». Milan. On September 27 Andrea Monarda played the Finally, on November 3 in the Auditorium of Rafelbunyol near “Allegretto”, “Capriccioso” and “Calmo” from the Sei corde di Valencia, during the Rafel Festival, the version of Albatros for Nicolò for guitar in Palazzo Ghizzoni Nasalli in Piacenza, during flute, clarinet and piano will be premiered by the New Made the Festival Incó_ntemporanea. The soprano Laura Catrani and Ensemble. The composer introduces the new work: « Albatros the harpsichord player Claudio Astronio performed Tre haiku for has a long history: it was born as Contrapunctus for flute and female voice and harpsichord on September 29 in the Sala violin, that is as a faithful revisitation, though transfigured in the Pamphili in Rimini, during the Sagra Musicale Malatestiana. registers, of a canon from the Art of Fugue . Then it was joined Sonata (Tiresia e la Pizia) for violin will go on tour with Paolo by a Preludio, an Interludio and a Postludio between the three Ghidoni on October 3 at the Rotonda di San Lorenzo in Mantua, phases of the Canone, like framing Bach’s polyphony with on October 14 in the Spazio Icarus in Reggio Emilia and on comments that were stylistically quite different and wholly “of October 18 in Forte Marghera, Venice, during the Biennale Arte.