Cikada & SWR ExperimentalstudioLuigi Nono 100

The Italian composer Luigi Nono (1924–1990) is referred to as one of the most central – and radical – composers of the last century. On 29 January, he would have turned a hundred years old, and during the Bergen International Festival his anniversary is celebrated with a concert featuring musicians from the chamber ensemble Cikada, SWR Experimentalstudio, tubaist Max Murray and mezzo soprano Zsuzsa Zseni. 

– Nono expands and enlarges even the most delicate sounds of the ensemble and uses live electronics almost like a magnifying glass to showcase what exists in this microscopic world, conductor and Professor for Composition at the Grieg Academy Dániel Péter Biró explains. 

All the works on the program are created at SWR Experimentalstudio, which has worked for more than 50 years with music utilising live electronics. Throughout the 1980s, Luigi Nono was a regular presence in the studio, which has also been a workplace for composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez. 

The concert is organised in collaboration with the Grieg Academy (UiB) and the symposium and artistic research project In Nono's Footsteps, in connection with the opening of the Holberg Week. Four compositions created by the next generation of composers, responding to the works by Nono at this Festival concert, will be premiered as part of In Nono's Footsteps.

Image: Kenneth Karlson (photo: Siv Dolmen)

Contributors

• Cikada

• Anne Karine Hauge flute

• Rolf Borch clarinet

• Kenneth Karlsson piano
  

• SWR Experimentalstudio

• Michael Acker, Joachim Haas, Daniel Miska sound direction
  

• Max Murray tuba

• Zsuzsa Zseni mezzo soprano

• Dániel Péter Biró conductor​

Works

• Luigi Nono (1924–1990)
  … Sofferte onde serene … (… suffered serene waves …)
  for piano and magnetic tape
  
  À Pierre. Dell’azzurro silenzio, inquietum (To Pierre. From the blue silence, unquiet)

  for bass flute, contrabass clarinet and electronica
  
  Post-prae-ludium no. 1 per Donau
  for F tuba and electronica
  
  Omaggio a György Kurtág (Homage to György Kurtág)
  for contralto voice, flute, clarinett, tuba and electronica

In collaboration with

​The Grieg Academy – Department of Music, University of Bergen