Luciano Berio (1925-2003); CotW; 2nd - 6th July, 2018.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Fifteen years since he died! It seems much more recent - I remember the documentary made in the last full year of his life (shown at the 2004 Huddersfield Festival) in which one of the last shots was the composer walking around his vineyard, looking forward to next year's harvest - which, alas, he never lived to see.

Such an important composer - and I don't think that this is the first CotW devoted to him: I have a (possibly false) memory of a week of programmes about twenty years ago, in which the composer contributed his memories (via an edited telephone conversation). This week, Gillian Moore will be providing such information, so with luck there'll be more Musical "meat" to the programmes than the biographical gossip that's featured so prominently in recent weeks.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b89j8r

(Now - how about a week devoted to Nono?)

[Bryn]

When they did a Berio CotW in the mid-80s the recording of Sinfonia used was a superb in-house one with the composer conducting his favourite British orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic. I had hoped this would again be the case, but we get Chailly instead. Good but not as special.

[MrGongGong]

(Now - how about a week devoted to Nono?)

Or even a year devoted to Eliane Radigue ?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Or even a year devoted to Eliane Radigue ?

I'll see your and raise you a

[BBMmk2]

Be good to hear the Sinfonia.

[Richard Barrett]

Such an important composer

Indeed, and a shame that he's basically known for two somewhat untypical works - Sinfonia and Folk Songs - which I dare say will be wheeled out together with Rendering and a Sequenza or three, while so much of his work remains obscure, like all his operas. Although my own favourites would be Coro and the Concerto for two pianos, maybe Echoing Curves.

[Conchis]

Paul McCartney is a fan, supposedly.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

No Rendering, and yes exactly three Sequenza (1, 3, 13) and the Sinfonia and Folk Songs. There's an "excerpt" from Coro (in the Segerstam recording) and another from Un Re in Ascolto. And Thema, Circles, Epifanie, Points on the Curve, A Ronne, Cries, Stanze, the (first) S4tet, Wasser- and Erdenklavier, Naturale, and part 2 of Labyrinthus II.

[Bryn]

Indeed, and a shame that he's basically known for two somewhat untypical works - Sinfonia and Folk Songs - which I dare say will be wheeled out together with Rendering and a Sequenza or three, while so much of his work remains obscure, like all his operas. Although my own favourites would be Coro and the Concerto for two pianos, maybe Echoing Curves.

Don't get me started on Sky Arts' repeated failure to broadcast Outis without visual and aural disruption approximately every 20 seconds. There used to be a video taken from the 199 La Scala production on YouTube, but audio only recordings of the work are all that remain available there today.

[MrGongGong]

Paul McCartney is a fan, supposedly.

I think the key word is probably the last one

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

An intriguing point occurred to me for the first time during today's programme. If, when Berio met Berberian in the late 1940s he "spoke no English", what version of Ulysses was it that Eco introduced him to ten years later - an Italian translation, or had he mastered English in that time? (I know he'd been married to an American for all that time, and spent lots of time in the States - but to master the language so well in that time to appreciate what Joyce was doing with it would be pretty impressive!)

[Bryn]

Damn it, why did they not include Cathy Berberian's recitation of the text used in Thema: Omaggio a Joyce. The work never seems complete to me unless preceded by that recitation. Fortunately it can be found on YouTube, followed by a truncated versio of Thema: . . . itself.

[Serial_Apologist]

Damn it, why did they not include Cathy Berberian's recitation of the text used in Thema: Omaggio a Joyce. The work never seems complete to me unless preceded by that recitation. Fortunately it can be found on YouTube, followed by a truncated versio of Thema: . . . itself.

Thanks Bryn - I've never heard Omaggio a Joyce given in its entirety, though some consider it as important as Stockhausen's "Gesang".

[Bryn]

Thanks Bryn - I've never heard Omaggio a Joyce given in its entirety, though some consider it as important as Stockhausen's "Gesang".

It's the way she delivers the Sirens text I find so gripping. It is, in effect, the overture to the work. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGx8iurt0Bw

I have the manipulated main section of Thema on one of the CDs in a BVHAAST Acousmatrix box, so have ripped that, saved the recitation 'overture' from YouTube, normalised each of them and edited the 'overture' in place.

There was a composer supervised RCA CD which can be found, at a price, from ThePolarBear (via amazon.co.uk) which had the complete version.

[teamsaint]

How's it going? Just downloaded the first three, should I spend my travelling listening time on it tomorrow ?