Far be it from me to dismiss Julia Werthimer's experience of the Berio
concert she attended, and even further be it from me to dismiss Berio
off-hand based on the handfull of works I know by him.  On the contrary,
by what I do know (Coro, Folk Songs, the Sequenzas and "La vera Storia"
which works I admire very much), I would say that Berio is a composer
who deserves this list's attention.  As a starting point there are some
interesting points in Julia's description on which some people more
familiar with the works might comment.

>Recit (Chemins VII) for saxophone.  It began with flutterings and
>rustlings in the strings and then the saxophone took off with a long
>melodic line which shortly expanded into a series of exchanges with the
>woodwinds, especially the flutes - a combination I found very exciting.
>The orchestra acted as a kind of echo chamber to the solo line, sustaining
>pitches but also multiplying chords both below and above that line and
>constantly modifying textures.

This seems to me a wonderful and accurate description of what you "heard",
i.e.  the musical material.  I would however be much interested in what (if
anything) is BEHIND this? Are we just witnessing a musical dialogue (as the
also rather clinical title seems to suggest), or should we look beyond?
What does "chemins" mean in this context?

>What struck me very forcibly was that all one's associations of the
>sax with jazz somehow fell away - it was as though it was a completely
>different instrument, far more lyrical in feeling.

Funny you should say that.  It was, as far as I remember, Berlioz who took
the sax into the realm of what we now call classical music.  He comments on
the lyrical aspects of the instrument in his treatise on instrumentation!
Can anybody comment on Berio's instrumentation techniques? Where did he get
his mastery?

>Very different was the next piece, Sequenza XII for solo bassoon.  This
>is an amazing tour-de-force for both composer and instrumentalist. ...

I know the piece myself from an excellent issue by Deutsche Grammophon of
all the sequenzas.  I concur; this is great music.  It reminds me of the
big horn solo in "Des Canyons aux Etoiles" from Messiaen, and not only by
the conception of a solo piece for an unlikely instrument.  There is depth
in and behind this, I'm sure.  Anybody on this list who will tell us?

>After intermission we returned for Coro for voices and instruments.  ...
>
>The whole piece is intensely dramatic, with a number of overwhelming
>climaxes...

What a joy to read that you were moved by so fierce and complex a work
like Coro.  Being able to "move" people in-depth in an intellectual
and emotional way and not just entertain or intrigue, that's what our
contemporary music needs.  How I would have loved to be there too.  Can
anybody tell us (perhaps out of own experience) what it is like to perform
Berio's music?

"Jos Janssen" <[log in to unmask]>