Madrid
31 March 2001 - 02 April 2001
The Sciarrino concert is a confirmation of Alter Ego in-depth study of the works of this composer with whom they have established a high level of collaboration. The pieces proposed for Alcalà are all for solo instrument and represent a serious challenge to the concentration, physical resistance and endurance of the listener. Perhaps in these works for solo instrument more than in any other Sciarrino has pressed forward, querying the very technique of the instrument and transforming it so as to invent a new technique which is totally "foreign" to the conventional one. The result on hearing them is great astonishment at the machination which involves the listener in the anomalous confrontation between performer and instrument in a way of playing that has never before been heard. As far as the Sonatas for piano are concerned, I do not believe that momentous and moving pieces like these exist composed for an instrument for which it seemed that EVERYTHING had already been said and written.......
The second concert pays homage to two important figures in Italian music: Franco Donatoni, who died recently, and Sylvano Bussotti. Three works have been chosen from the last stage of Donatoni's output - "Nidi" for piccolo (1979), "Midi" for flute (1989) and "Soft" for bass clarinet (1989). In the second and third piece, Donatoni gives free rein to his unsurpassed talent of craftsmanlike composer adopting a form with panels typical of his final period. Perhaps with "Nidi" - in my opinion one of his best compositions - a less schematic and more unpredictable musician emerges. Bussotti's works in programme are "Couple" (1959), the first piece of the celebrated "Sette Fogli" (a composition of great significance for its freedom from prejudice), "Brutto Ignudo", a bravura piece for bass clarinet (1980) and "Souvenir d'Italie" which Bussotti composed in 1994 for the Alter Ego Ensemble on the occasion of the series of concerts entitled "Musica per la Resistenza" given at Milan's Teatro alla Scala.
IMAGES
