| $26.97
back in stock as of
december 1st, 2008
first in stock on
march 29th, 2007
threads:
1950s-electronic
modern-composition
electro-acoustic-composition
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| | | lilith (russia) #lr 121 lp luciano berio “différences • sequenza iii & vii • due pezzi • chamber music” long playing record - différences (14:58) 1958-59
- sequenza iii (7:00) 1965
- sequenza vii (8:26) 1969
- due pezzi (6:31) 1951
- chamber music (6:23) 1953
| kind of a head-scratcher that lilith would include this early 70s philips lp of assorted pieces by luciano berio in its reissue campaign (alongside a patch of stevie wonder, jimmy smith, tim hardin, and... kiss reissues no less...) but ah let’s give the curator a break and commend him/her on a fine choice...
the centerpiece of the record is undoubtedly “différences” from 1958/59 - arguably the first well-known piece mixing live performance/instrumentation with tape-playback. it’s a great, dense wall-of-sound with chugging strings up against some gnarly ring-modulated spazz-out.
extremely well done reissue with liners in russian, french, german, and english. |
| | born in 1925, the italian composer luciano berio has now firmly established his place as a great poetic musician. on this recording can be heard some of the high points of berio's considerable output in which he is concerned as much with electronic resources as with the exploration of the limits of instruments or the human voice.
"differences" for flute, clarinet, viola, cello, harp, and magnetic tape dates from 1958-59 and so represents one of the first successful attempts to combine natural sounds and prepared sounds from a tape. for a time the artificial sound at the centre of the work takes the place of the performers. they return with various pizzicato entries, creating a homogeneous texture which seeks only an alteration in the expression rather than a disruption in the character of the music.
the "sequences" form a series of independent works begun in 1958, and continued in 1965 ("sequenza iii" for solo voice) and 1969 ("sequenza vii" for oboe”). “sequenza iii” made famous by singer cathy berberian to whom it is dedicated employs a very disjointed text by markus kutter which allows all the resources of vocal virtuosity to be used instrumentally. "sequenza vii," written for heinz holliger, was first performed at darmstadt in august, 1969, and in place of the elegant, punctuated virtuosity of "sequenza iii" substitutes an instrumental equivalent. the composer intends this work to be sustained by a very evenly sounded b natural.
the "due pezzi" for violin and piano is in fact a triptych. it dates from 1951 and is one of the first works published by berio. the very restrained lyricism assigns it to the essential tradition of similar works by bartok. but the poetic density and elegant line are characteristic of all berio's works.
the same qualities are found again in the three sections of "chamber music" for female voice the text is taken from james joyce whose work was to be a frequent source for berio accompanied by clarinet, cello, and harp. the extremely refined and sonorous texture of this piece, written in 1953, again links the resources of the declamatory and vocal tradition with the avantgarde style of writing. the juilliard ensemble is an instrumental group that berio himself chose from graduates of the most famous conservatory in america.
- marcel marnat
the abstract colour photograph on the front of this sleeve was derived from an investigation into the relationship between sound and vision. by electronic means - a display-oscilloscope was used - an analysis of the sound was made. parallel to this an endeavour was made to find a relation between the two phenomena by photographic means and colour television equipment. the time-movement elements of sound and picture were then simultaneously recorded on both sound and video tapes with freeze-motion film technique.
study project, photographic research: frank van oosterhout
typography: jaap koning |
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