15/01/2018

h.21 Auditorium San Fedele

Bruckner Project II

Murcof & Philippe Petit
Live

San Fedele Young Composer Prize
Alessandro Laraspata
2Bruck

Andrea Giomi & Shari Delorian
In Seven degrees of light

e-cor ensemble
con Mehr Licht!

Sound engineer: Filippo Berbenni

The electronic music season resumed with an exceptional evening that sees the return to the Milanese scene, after the last appearance in 2011 at the MITO Festival, of the Mexican artist Fernando Corona, aka Murcof, together with the French multi-instrumentalist Philippe Petit. The Duo will propose a musical journey to the frontiers of the fantastic.

The evening was introduced by a tribute to Anton Bruckner’s symphonic work. Three works made using different ways of reviving Bruckner’s compositional processes and luminous sounds. Alessandro Laraspata, with 2Bruck, exploits the symphonic character of the electronic medium. In Seven degrees of light, Andrea Giomi & Shari Delorian try to evoke the tensions that stir within Bruckner’s soundscapes. The e-cor ensemble, with Mehr Licht!, focuses on the spiritual theme of light and its contrast with darkness, a piece designed for immersive listening. 

San Fedele Young Composer Prize 2017

The 2017 San Fedele Prize A tribute to Anton Bruckner, whose music was the reference point of the San Fedele Award for young composers in 2017. Indeed, the symphonic work of the Austrian musician can be a rich source of ideas for today’s electronic music, in how much in Bruckner’s compositional processes dominate the slow harmonic developments, the emphasis on the dynamics, on the crescendo and on the repetition and the sonorous amplification of the sequences, and finally for the religious contents of this work that transcends the musical aspect. The works commissioned by San Fedele Musica from the winners of the Prize (Alessandro Laraspata, e-cor ensemble) and the runner-up (Andrea Giomi / Shari Delorian) will be performed. Alessandro Laraspata, with 2Bruck, mainly exploits the symphonic character of the electronic medium as well as the infinite technical potential of processing. Fragments taken from some of Bruckner’s symphonies are recomposed in various ways: from total recognition to complete transfiguration. These materials will then be integrated with other synthetic materials obtained with various techniques. Furthermore, particular attention is paid to the spatialization of sound to create that fundamental contrapuntal game of the parts absolutely necessary for Bruckner in expressing the theme of light as a path of anamnesis and reminiscence of the past (space therefore understood as a multiplicity of levels between conscious and unconscious) for a possible prediction of the future. In this temporal game, the light of the present takes on sound forms through a game of sonic projections similar to luminous projections, such as the “reflections” or “refractions” between shards of glass or deforming mirrors. Andrea Giomi / Shari Delorian with Seven degrees of light relate to the work of the Austrian composer in an elusive way, trying to evoke those tensions that stir within the Brucknerian soundscapes. The composition is presented as a four-movement variation on the theme of Anton Bruckner’s Adagio from the seventh symphony. The metaphor of asceticism and light is central, both in the internal architecture of each section and in the progressive unfolding of the composition. The piece presents a dynamic evolution of the frequency space from tonal darker and more granular sounds to elements of greater brilliance and orchestral tension. In the same way, the internal landscape of the composition gradually articulates elements of a material nature with more ethereal and abstract sounds. This trend also reflects the progressive recognition of the Brucknerian materials that hover throughout the composition in the form of fragments or memories. The e-cor ensemble offers a work entitled Revelation. Light is the theme of the composition. Light understood as a spiritual sense of revelation or discovery but also as a physical and metaphysical source of illumination, of a truth hidden in the shadows. In the piece, the development of the spiritual theme of light and its contrast with darkness was designed for a totally immersive listening, not only by the organ predisposed to listening, but also by the eyes. The sound material was chosen by elaborating some parts of Anton Bruckner’s compositions, due to the strong spiritual impact that pervades his writing. Starting from materials of Brucknerian derivation, new sound objects have been created, arranged according to a timbral, rhythmic and frequency link, which interact with the entire compositional architecture, generating density and breath within the structure; the vertical organization saturates the acoustic spectrum, preparing the horizontal development. The sudden expressive contrasts from fortissimo to pianissimo are intended to trace the strong contrast between light and shadow.