Maestro di Suoni e Silenzi: Necessary Nono 5.

Grant Chu Covell

[May 2022.]

Recordings do not always serve these pieces well, but what are we going to do? In recent years we’ve seen a few freshened tapes as well as some serious sorting out of the physical scores. Remember that some of these works changed per the resonance of the performance space. Not that Nono couldn’t make up his mind, just that his compositions gradually became site specific.

I’ve set aside a stack to discuss, wanting to go beyond the surface (or attempt to say something profound), but given a few of these have been around for a while, it’s time to get them across the counter and provide some coverage sooner rather than later. Here’s a first group.

“Les Espaces Électroacoustiques II.” Luigi NONO: Omaggio a Emilio Vedova (1960)¹; La fabbrica illuminata (1964)²; A floresta é jovem e cheja de vida (1965-66)³. Luciano BERIO: Altra voce (1999)⁴. Gottfried Michael KOENIG: Klangfiguren II (1955-56)⁵; Terminus X (1967)⁶. Karlheinz STOCKHAUSEN: Kontakte (1958-60)⁷. Sarah Maria Sun² (sop), Liliana Poli³, Kadigia Bove³, Elena Vicini³, Berto Troni³ (voices), William O. Smith³ (clar), Veniero Rizzardi³, Alvise Vidolin³ (surround mix), Monica Bacelli⁴ (m-sop), Michele Marasco⁴ (a-fl), Francesco Giomi⁴, Damiano Meacci⁴, Kilian Schwoon⁴ (live electronics), Johannes Herrmann⁷ (pno), Lucía Carro Veiga⁷ (perc), ICST Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology: Kees Tazelaar⁶, Carlos Hidalgo⁷, Germán Toro Pérez² (sound projection), Florian Bogner^1,2,3,4,5,7 (recording, mixing and mastering), Leandro Gianini⁷ (recording), Germán Toro Pérez (artistic direction). col legno WWE 2SACD 40003 (2 SACDs) (www.col-legno.com).

A sequel to a double set (WWE 2SACD 40002) which included classic tape works by Varèse, Ligeti, Maderna, Berio, Lachenmann, Harvey, Boulez and Ferneyhough. Less than five minutes in duration, the tape piece Omaggio a Emilio Vedova is an intense spark. Created in just 20 days, all the sounds are synthetic (exceptional in Nono’s tape oeuvre). The extant tapes are four-track, but back in the 1960’s such a work would have been broadcast in mono, possibly involving mixing. Today’s technology encourages spatial distribution of the four tracks which is what is offered here.

Sarah Maria Sun (recorded in 2018) tackles La fabbrica illuminata’s tape enthusiastically. Whether Nono succeeded in bringing the factory into music and music into the factory is a topic for another day. In this rendition, the tape becomes limber and well-articulated as it shifts between slogans and shop noises.

This release of A floresta é jovem e cheja de vida gives equal weight to the required tapes and the 1967 recordings of the actors, soprano, clarinet and five copper sheets (1.2mm thick, 132cm x 30cm in size, suspended and struck with chains, mallets, etc.). All the tracks have been remixed. On the mode release (mode 87), the original tapes hover like ghosts behind the new soloists who are more audible. Col legno offers a more consistent surface: Smith’s sounds are deeply embedded in the pre-recorded tracks and his clarinet is less isolated.

How do these pieces not end up sounding trite and ringing false? A floresta’s “eleven moments of the anti-imperialist struggle” connote the 1960s whether we hear a performance from the work’s tour or whether today’s players perform against the original tapes. This piece is vigorous, thought through and consistent. Maybe Nono was topical, but he was sincere and honest. This piece (and others like Risonanze erranti) still stand up.

This is the first recording of Berio’s Altra voce, an elaborated extract from the 1999 “azione musicale” Cronaca del Luogo. Recorded in 2001, alto flute and mezzo-soprano are looped and layered, representing lovers. Live piano and percussion take big swings within Stockhausen’s Kontakte. The cosmic electronic snoring sound (just after 17:00) is impressive here. Koenig’s through-composed Klangfiguren II and abrasive Terminus X are assertively remixed, boldly etching details.

“Parole e testi.” Salvatore SCIARRINO: L’alibi della parola (1994)¹; Tre canti senza pietre (1999)². Luigi NONO: Polifonica – Monodia – Ritmica (1951; orig. reconstr. vers.)³; Sarà dolce tacere (1960)⁴; Polifonica – Monodia – Ritmica (1951; vers. H. SCHERCHEN, 1951)⁵. Schola Heidelberg^1,2,4, ensemble aisthesis³, Walter Nußbaum^1,2,3,4 (cond.), Musicians of the Darmstadt Federal Theater Orchestra⁵, Hermann Scherchen⁵ (cond.). Divox CDX-21701 (1 CD) (www.divox.com).

Despite the generational differences, aesthetic ties unite these two Italians. Do not forget that Nono dedicated La lontananza to Sciarrino. The three a cappella works reveal their composers exploring new techniques to manipulate texts. Nono’s Sarà dolce tacere is an eight-part madrigal (two SATB quartets) setting Cesare Pavese. The text is fractured, scored syllable by syllable. Rarely does any one singer carry an entire word. Continually changing pitches and pulse prevent straightforward continuity.

This release offers the first recording of a new “old” version of Polifonica – Monodia – Ritmica. When Scherchen premiered the work on July 10, 1951, he drastically pruned away more than six minutes from the first movement and roughly four minutes from the second. What did Scherchen see in the 26-year-old Nono? The succinct form emphasizes the composer’s spiky serialism, pointing towards the dramatic dynamics and rage of the middle-period political works (the published score, Ars Viva Verlag AV 76, reflects the conductor’s edits). Extensive detective work unearthed Nono’s longer original. The rediscovered version opens quietly, less aggressively. Polifonica (10:52 vs. Scherchen’s 4:39) awakens naïvely, the eventual percussive rhythms are strident. Nono’s original was more organically designed, though not as ambitious. This disc includes the 1951 premiere’s recording (with generous audience noise) which permits comparison with the “pre-world-premiere” reconstruction.

Sciarrino’s L’alibi della parola is for four male voices. Tre canti senza pietre requires a mixed chorus of seven. Texts and syllables become secondary to precise breathing and razor-sharp articulation. L’alibi della parola demands expressive precision. A tight clutch of catastrophic novellas, Tre canti senza pietre offers meticulously positioned syllables, melismas and whispered echoes. Chorus music is not my thing, but Nono and Sciarrino do wonderful things here.

“Edizione delle opere, vol. 1.” Luigi NONO: Two performances of Risonanze erranti. Liederzyklus a Massimo Cacciari (1986; rev. 1987)^1,2. Ensemble Prometeo¹: Katarzyna Otczyk¹ (c-alt), Mario Caroli¹ (fl), Gianluigi Paganelli¹ (tba), Flavio Tanzi¹, Aurelio Scudetti¹, Pietro Pompei¹, Alberto Toccaceli¹, Sara De Cicco¹, Pedro Perini¹ (perc), Marco Angius¹ (cond.), Luca Richelli¹ (electronics), Alvise Vidolin¹ (sound projection), Susanne Otto² (c-alt), Roberto Fabbriciani² (fl), Giancarlo Schiaffini² (tba), Carlos Beresi², Konrad Graf², Richard Lepetit², Isao Nakamura², Rüdiger Pawassar², Gregory Riffel² (perc), Friedrich Goldmann² (cond.), EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO der HSS des SWF² (electronics), Luigi Nono², Hans-Peter Haller² (sound projection). Shiiin ELN1 (1 SACD) (www.shiiin.com).

Here are two performances of a large chamber work with texts by Herman Melville and Ingeborg Bachmann, but also incorporating a few phrases from Ockeghem, Desprez and Machaut. The newer recording¹ is from 2014 (Parma, October 5, 2014) and the older performance² is the world premiere of the definite version from 1987 (Paris, October 8, 1987).

This big-little piece asks for a contralto, flute (piccolo and bass flute), tuba, and a percussion sextet playing Sardinian bells, crotales and bongos, but also some complicated live electronic processing. Runtime is about 40 minutes (41:00 for Parma, 2014, and 38:14 for Paris, 1987) and consists of 31 small sections where the isolated words are delivered slowly, colored by equally deliberate flute and tuba, and punctuated by bell and drum outbursts.

This is a tricky one to enjoy objectively. With the grumbling bells, disjointed texts and pointillistic high (flute) and low (tuba) effects, Risonanze erranti can slide uncomfortably into parody. Structurally there’s a lot going on, and the details welcome close investigation. Similar layered percussive effects appear in Prometeo and A Carlo Scarpa, architetto, ai suoi infiniti possibili, but on the surface, bells and drums also sound like mystical bumbling. (Note that with its tuned crotales and ring-modulated pianos, Stockhausen’s Mantra can also leave this impression.)

The Paris label Shiiin which concentrates on electroacoustic music (much Radigue, some Ferrari) suggests this is the first of a series.