Luca Francesconi
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Luca Francesconi (born 17 March 1956) is an Italian composer. He studied at the Milan Conservatory, then with
Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...
and
Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...
.


Early years

Luca Francesconi was born in
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
. His father was a painter who edited ''Il Corriere dei piccoli'' and conceived ''Il Corriere dei ragazzi'', while his mother, an advertiser, created a number of famous advertising campaigns. Francesconi spent his early years in QT8, a working class quarter in Milan that rose up alongside a huge pile of post-war rubble which would later become Monte Stella. At the age of five, won over by a concert by Svjatoslav Richter, he began to learn the piano. Although he was accepted into the junior high school section of the city's conservatory six years later, he instinctively pulled out, thinking that it was too academic and conventional. Instead, even though he had in the meantime moved with his family to a more central quarter of Milan, Francesconi opted to attend the junior high school in QT8. In this way from a very early age his relationship with music and life in general took on a course of responsibility and constant choice, of research and direct experimentation.


Education

''We need to profoundly rethink and filter in a determined way the enormously rich potential that has been elaborated in the past and to use it for expressive purposes.'' Francesconi returned to the Conservatory of Milan in 1974, while he was still attending the Berchet Classical Languages High School, and explored the length and breadth of the musical landscape, taking an interest in every possible dimension of sound.Guido Barbieri, Francesconi, Luca, Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani – Appendix VII (2007) He played in jazz and rock groups as well as in classical concerts, he worked as a session man in recording studios, and he composed music for theatre, cinema, advertising, and television. These were all rewarding experiences, not least from an economic point of view, but they were not enough. He realised that a truly living language, while looking at the present, draws its lifeblood from its roots. The time had come for him to dig into the tradition of music to which he belonged. The Milan Conservatory was opening more and more space to contemporary music, so Francesconi enrolled in the composition course conducted by Azio Corghi. "From him I learnt the trade, the fundamentals, counterpoint and those things, professional seriousness and open-mindedness." In the meantime he continued to explore electronic music and in 1977 took time out to immerse himself in jazz at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.


A student of

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

''The mountain is in front of us, and it is necessary to pass over it, with enormous force and patience. It's not enough just to contemplate it nor to sneak by it via secondary paths much less go backwards claiming that the mountain is not there.''
Donnerstag aus Licht 275px, Karlheinz Stockhausens grave with the score to LICHT . (''Thursday from Light'') is an opera by Karlheinz Stockhausen in a greeting, three acts, and a farewell, and was the first of seven to be composed for the opera cycle '' Licht: die si ...
went on stage at the
Teatro alla Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...
in Milan in 1981. Stockhausen is a historical reference point: Francesconi admired him for his extraordinary organisational consistency, for his tireless search for a linguistic unity. He was also deeply struck by the visionary quality of this initial opera. He wanted to observe the composer at work, so he enrolled in the intensive course that Stockhausen held in Rome that same year. "From him I learnt rigor, at first imbibing it by osmosis, and then demythologising it."


Meeting and collaboration with

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...

''Luciano didn't talk much about the more 'technical' and delicate aspects of his work as a composer. I remember that when he least expected it, I would fire questions at him point-blank, hoping to pick up some tips. His replies were like enigmas. They had something sacral about them and they required divining rituals to decode them.'' Berio Francesconi studied above all in the field, just like the workshop artisans of old, acting as his assistant from 1981 to 1984. He worked directly on the score of ''La vera storia'' and participated in the production as rehearsal pianist and second conductor/substitute maestro. In 1984 he collaborated with the composer in the rewriting of Monteverdi's ''Orfeo''. He was also present with Berio at Tanglewood where he attended one of his famous summer courses.


Activities, works, research

In 1984 three of Francesconi's pieces, including ''Passacaglia'', for large orchestra (1982), were selected for the
Gaudeamus International Composers Award The Gaudeamus International Composers Award is made by the Gaudeamus Foundation. The prize is awarded yearly, to a young composer at Dutch music concert, ''Gaudeamus Muziekweek''. The Gaudeamus Foundation had held an annual music week of Dutch co ...
in Amsterdam. This first important recognition on the international scene created a useful tie with the Dutch music scene and laid the foundation for further commissions. Meanwhile, in Italy, thanks to a commission from the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Francesconi had the opportunity to seriously put into practice for the first time his idea of a "polyphony of languages": ''Suite 1984''. The polyphony that I have in mind hasn't got anything to do with the "postmodern" or collage, the exotic pastiche, the provincial chinoiserie of our grandparents (but also of Stockhausen and certain pop groups). Instead, it is a free fusion of ideas in a compact and linguistically very solid body that reveals its profound energies in its inner profundity and not in an exterior heterogeneity. Energies that come from the earth, from popular culture, from ancient African and Oriental cultures.Luca Francesconi, Les Esprits libres, in AA.VV. La loi musicale – Ce que la lecture de l'histoire nous (dés)apprend, edited by D. Cohen Levinas, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2000 "In 1984 the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari presented a quartet made up of the pianist and composer
Franco D'Andrea Francesco "Franco" D'Andrea (born 8 March 1941 in Merano, Italy) is an Italian jazz pianist and composer. Life D'Andrea is considered one of the most famous jazz musicians from Italy and has recorded some 200 albums. He developed his style in ...
together with the group Africa Djolé led by the master percussionist Fode Youla from Guinea. The idea was then conceived that the music of this group be recreated in symphonic form (''Suite 1984'') by the 28-year-old Luca Francesconi for a performance by the theatre's orchestra under the direction of Francesconi himself, a recent product of rigorous musical studies, assistant to Luciano Berio and 'jazz student of D'Andrea', as he used to like to define himself. The concert attracted experts from all over the place anxious to hear novelties and promising syncretisms of various musical civilisations, and it was a triumph."Franco Fayenz, Si chiude la ribalta della Scala per Quartett, antologia di soluzioni geniali, Il Sole 24 ore, 8 May 2011 "Orchestra, African percussionists and jazz quintet: the choice of instrumental make-up itself contained in an explicit manner the generative nucleus of one of the principal aesthetic motors of the music of Luca Francesconi: the tendency to place alongside one another, following the rules of contrast and fusion, sounds and languages of highly diverse origins."


1984–1990

Francesconi's first record, an LP recorded in the United States, contained ''Viaggiatore insonne'', on a text by
Sandro Penna Sandro Penna (June 12, 1906 – January 21, 1977) was an Italian poet. Biography Born in Perugia, Penna lived in Rome for most of his life. He never had a regular job, contributing to several newspapers and writing almost only poetry. His first ...
. "Francesconi's attitude as a composer is in fact similar to that of a tireless traveller, who explores linguistic spaces in search of their ever-shifting confines, and who conducts an etiological study to determine the confines between noise and sound, between instinct and reason."Robert Coheur, A fuoco, 4° studio sulla memoria, www.modernmusix.com The new piece ''Vertige'', for string orchestra, was performed in Strasbourg. Francesconi composed various works for ensemble which were performed in Cagliari (''Onda sonante'', for eight instruments, commissioned by the Nieuw Ensemble; conductor: Ed Spanjaard (1985)), Paris (''Tracce'', for flute (1986)), Città di Castello (''Da cap''o, for nine instruments (1988)), Middelburg (Finta-di-nulla, for soprano and nineteen instruments on a text by Umberto Fiori; Xenakis Ensemble; conductor: Diego Masson; and soprano: Marie Duisit (1991)), and Brussels (''Encore/Da capo'', for 9 instruments; Ictus Ensemble, conducted by the composer (1995)). In 1984
Casa Ricordi Casa Ricordi is a publisher of primarily classical music and opera. Its classical repertoire represents one of the important sources in the world through its publishing of the work of the major 19th-century Italian composers such as Gioachino Ro ...
became Francesconi's publisher and since then has published all his works. In 1985 he was invited to the Festival Musica ‘900 in Trent for a series of public conversations with
Franco Donatoni Franco Donatoni (9 June 1927 – 17 August 2000) was an Italian composer. Biography Born in Verona, Donatoni started studying violin at the age of seven, and frequented the local music academy. Later, he studied at the Milan Conservatory ...
. This meeting proved extremely important; talking with the great Verona composer, both in their public conversations and during train trips together, Francesconi felt that he reached a solution for a number of unresolved problems. ''Plot in fiction'', dedicated to Franco Donatoni, was in many ways the happy outcome of this experience.


Plot in Fiction

''The really difficult thing is to write works with a rich and articulated complex of meanings and events: works, that is, that are capable of assuming a linguistic structure, of being a world (Mahler!), but whose complexity is transparent.'' ''Plot in Fiction'', for oboe and cor anglais or clarinet and chamber group (1986), constructs its sonoric line around key notes within a rigorous formal framework.Guido Barbieri, Francesconi, Luca, Enciclopedia italiana Treccani, VII Appendix, 2007 "The point here is to find the "plot" in the "fiction", the narrative line that twists and turns through the complexity and intricacy of a "mass of everyday symbols". What's involved is an architecture that guides the listener within the composition: the search for a compositional transparency (without, however, ever slipping into simplicity; the means employed leave unaltered the quality of the composer's thought), based on pure energy, directly perceptible, without any need to exhibit the mechanisms underlying it. The piece was performed for the first time at the Festival Musica '900 in Trent by Ensemble Musique Oblique under the direction of Sandro Gorli; the soloist was Diego Dini Ciacci.


Mambo

At this point I would say that it is no longer possible to talk of a language devoid of code or morphogenesis, i.e. of a language that comes into being while the aesthetic event is being produced. It's necessary to also come to terms with a substratum, with what I call semantic pressure, that is with history.Ricciarda Belgiojoso, Note d'autore. A tu per tu con i compositori d'oggi, Postmedia books, 2013 Mambo, for solo piano, is Francesconi's most jazz-like piece, and it reveals clearly his search for an ever-uneasy equilibrium between sonoric materials, gathered in their primitive state, and the evocative power of history, from which the composer cannot remove himself. In the piece there is an overlap of a rhythmic ostinato in a low register, a series of ascending-descending diatonic lines, and, finally, a sequence of pounding 4-note chords. In this continual 'friction of contraries' resides the aesthetic motor of Francesconi's music as well as the powerful charge of sonoric seduction that his works carry. Francesconi exploits as a precious resource the capacity for intense analysis developed in Western culture. He takes a shared musical reference and dissects it remorselessly until he lays bare further possibilities of development, of transformation. Wielding its 'semantic pressure' as though it were a picklock, he presses further and further inwards, towards the energy-bearing roots of sound.


AGON, centre for music research and experimentation

It's important for composers to confront the use of computers face-on; even empirically, at a basic level. To search for, study, and promote new means through which to communicate with them, new interfaces. It's important for them to help to lead mankind back to the centre of his machines. In 1990 Francesconi founded AGON with two great utopian visions in mind. The first was that it is still possible and desperately important to work together, cooperatively, imagining projects to realise together with others, to exchange experiences, ideas. AGON came into being as an organism with a public identity: "it is not my or your studio"; it aspires to be a place where it's possible to talk, meet, and not just pursue one's own interest. The second utopian idea was to start from below and not from high-tech; to depart from the musical needs of composers with a view to stimulating a different relationship, simpler, "less terroristic", between real musicians and machines. Handling electronics also serves, according to Francesconi, to recuperate a physical, auditive approach to musical composition, which, if limited to paper and pencil, runs the risk of becoming too speculative, weakening the direct relationship with the sonoric material.Guido Barbieri, Francesconi, Luca, Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani – VII Appendice (2007) AGON has for many years been one of the most active centres in Italy for music research and production.


Riti neurali

''Complexity is always a question of quality, not quantity. What really matters is transparency in an overall density. This means that I should only make use of a particularly articulated syntax if I really need to, or, in other words, only if I've got particularly articulated things to say.''Luca Francesconi, Complessità, Milan 1989 Composed in 1991, for violin and eight instruments, ''Riti neurali'' is Francesconi's third study on memory. Like many of his works, it develops the material on multiple levels, pursuing labyrinthine paths. Nonetheless, its clearly delineated textures offer the listener unmistakable points of reference. The soloist establishes a vast array of relations with the small orchestra (guiding it, allowing himself to be guided, contradicting it, ignoring it, etc.), at the same time assuming various positions himself ... The complexity of the counterpoint arises out of the simultaneity of the various positions. "There are things that evoke other things, or that acquire meaning in relation to other things. We are subjected, in a certain sense, to a historically determined perceptive destiny. Whether we want to be or not. The illusion of the tabula rasa, of pure transparency, is not enough. Probably it's better to take account of this perceptive problem right from the start and to consider it one of the compositional parameters." The work was commissioned by Radio France and the world premiere took place in Paris on 14 January 1992:
Asko Ensemble Asko or ASKO may refer to: * Asko (name), a male given name common in Finland and Estonia * Askø, a Danish island * Asko Cylinda or Asko Appliances AB, a Swedish company producing household appliances * AskoSchönberg, a Dutch chamber orchestra * ...
; conductor: Denis Cohen, and soloist: Irvine Arditti. While a series of performances followed on from one another in Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, and Antwerp, an extensive portrait at the Venice Biennale, in 1993, definitively consolidated Francescon's reputation in Italy as well: the Nieuw Ensemble Amsterdam, Arditti and Ensemble Modern (with the newly commissioned Plot II) joined forces in a single concert dedicated to the composer's music at the Teatro La Fenice.


Etymo

''The great challenge is to maintain in the composer the two levels, the compositional and the emotive, and to ensure that these continually charge each other with responsibility for the form of the work up until in the end they arrive at a balanced result.'' Between 1993 and 1994 Francesconi worked and taught in Paris in the hyper-technological workshop
Ircam IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of avant garde and electro-acoustical art music. It is ...
, where "you model sound with your hands". On commission from Ircam, he carried out computer analysis on sounds and their behaviour right down to their roots, their etymon, to realise "one of the most convincing and at the same time impetuous musical equivalents of the writing of Baudelaire, striving with clarity of mind to achieve a secure control over the insidious relationship between words and music." The piece is based almost entirely on
Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...
's poem ''Le Voyage'', of which at two points we hear the soprano declaim two key fragments: "Dites, qu'avez-vous vu?" (Speak, what have you seen?). The computer analysis of this question constitutes the DNA that structures the entire piece, from the microstructure to the macroform. The result is a multi-levelled organism that in 25 minutes lays out its basic material (phonemes, instrumental particles, electronic transformation) and then proceeds to join it all together in increasingly complex structures. Everything begins with a question on the origin of meaning (in Greek: "etymon"). What is there before the word, and what models language? And finally, what allows us to transcend language? In the beginning there is pre-language, its premises. Etymo, a work furnished with huge white wings, starts out with the primordial mumblings of language, in phonemes. Nothing is intelligible, alliterations that roll off and slip away (or fluctuate) and an orchestra that appears suspended, as if it were waiting. These phonetic and musical particles aggregate in a contrapuntal overlapping which in the end explodes in an ocean of profundity from which the first words arise. An important example of how Francesconi employs electronics in a masterly way to broaden the expressive range and colour of instruments. The physicality of the performance remains at the centre of the work, but the electronics helps it to reach an extreme expressive intensity. ''A fuoco ''(1995) is Francesconi's fourth study on memory; ''Animus'', for trombone and computer (1996), was performed in Paris, while the London Sinfonietta took ''Plot in fiction'' to Santa Cecilia in Rome (1996).


Wanderer

''The effort to formalise creative thought and thought as a whole is extremely important for composers as well, but by the same token the "analogical" and qualitative approach of the artist helps to play down their relationship with technological instruments and above all to reaffirm the impossibility of discretising, quantifying human experience; the impossibility of converting into binary code and sending via fibre optic cable the sum total of existence, the totality of aesthetic experience, of the body, of affection, of the world.'' On 17 January 2000
Riccardo Muti Riccardo Muti, (; born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor. He currently holds two music directorships, at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and at the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Muti has previously held posts at the Maggio Musicale ...
conducted ''Wanderer'' at the Scala in Milan. "This voyager is man who, after conducting an inventory of the generations that have preceded him, takes with him only the bare essentials to set out on a path towards the immensity of possible spaces. At the dawn of the new millennium Luca Francesconi frees himself from the crushing weight of tradition, especially that generated by serialism and its worshipers. After extensive research into tempo, into tempi, one might say, into sonoric texture, the composer here explores a type of language that favours narration.Wanderer – Cobalt, Scarlet : two colours of dawn, http://www.lamediatheque.be/travers_sons/0103ag01.html


Cobalt, Scarlet: Two Colours of Dawn

''Music is closer than any other form of expression to that nucleus of "existential energy" that lives deep within us.'' 2000 was also the year of Cobalt, Scarlet: Two Colors of Dawn. "A single movement of twenty-three minutes for large orchestra divided into parallel – at times counterpoised – groups begins with a pianissimo of metallic gleams that emanate alternately from the two sides of the stage. Then, other percussion instruments, wind instruments and brass instruments, join in in a subdued manner, developing, transforming planes of volume and colour. But it is an unexpected metallic accent exploding like a burst of profundity that fills the auditorium not so much with clamour as with presence, rapture." "With this composition Luca Francesconi reached a turning point in his career, enriching his exploration into the heart of sonoric material with greater sensibility and emotivity. In this way his music acceded to a broader artistic dimension, that of a harmonious encounter of technique and psychology in the broadest sense of the term.


Music theatre

From 1985 to the present Luca Francesconi has composed eight works of a theatrical stamp, from ''Scene'', on a text by Umberto Fiori, to the chamber opera In ''Ostaggio'', from ''Lips, Eyes Bang'', for actress/singer, twelve instruments and live audio/video, to the video-opera Striaz. ''Ballata, commissioned'' by the Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels/di Bruxelles and with stage direction by Achim Freyer, was staged in 2002.


Ballata

''My idea was to turn over a new leaf, to free myself so to speak from the 20th century. I wanted to use all the expressive densities that that century conceded to me, and for me it was a kind of synthesis of the musical experiences that had struck me most.'' In 1994 Luca Francesconi had realised an opera for radio (and eventual winner of the Prix Italia), ''Ballata del rovescio del mondo'', on a text by Umberto Fiori; in 1996 his continuing, close collaboration with the Milan poet resulted in his third work for music theatre, ''Ballata'', drawn from
Samuel Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake P ...
's
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ''The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'' (originally ''The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere'') is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–1798 and published in 1798 in the first edition of ''Lyrical Ballad ...
. Divided into two acts, ''Ballata'' makes use of a large orchestra with an enlarged percussion section; on the right of the stage is an instrumental ensemble inspired by Gypsy orchestras, while four female choirs distributed at the four angles of the auditorium "function as walls that open and close towards the irrational, memory, towards flashbacks". Electronic sounds elaborated at Ircam contribute to the spatial disorientation. Originally, for the role of the ancient mariner, Francesconi had thought of Sting, with whom he had recorded the first song of the opera ''Day After Day''. In the end, however, the collaboration did not eventuate for reasons of language (Sting did not feel up to singing and acting in Italian), but the idea remained of a present-day narrator who, like the ancient mariner, is condemned to wander around the globe in search of someone to whom to recount his incredible adventures, from shipwreck to the glaciers of the South Pole, from the scorching sun of the equator to the appearance of monsters and a phantomatic sailing ship. The temporal plane is split: on stage the ancient mariner tells his story and at the same time he appears as a young man in the midst of a storm. Various compositional techniques follow on from one another, from early expressionism onwards, integrated with other traditions, like folk music. "Luca Francesconi develops an orchestral writing that is inventive, sensual and seductive all at the same time, deftly integrating electronic resources elaborated by Ircam. But, much more, he makes masterful use of an armoury of ardent vocality that is seasoned but anything but worn-out – from Brecht's spoken song to Monteverdi's madrigal, passing from the songs of English Baroque opera to all the immortals of Italian lyric opera, from Verdi to Berio, of whom he was a student."


Buffa opera

''Who said that music today necessarily has to create angst? It's enough to think that Albanese used to come running onto the stage pursued by a cigarette two and half metres tall.'' ''Buffa opera'', a piece inspired by
opera buffa ''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramm ...
on a text by
Stefano Benni Stefano Benni (born 12 August 1947) is an Italian satirical writer, poet and journalist. His books have been translated into around 20 foreign languages and scored notable commercial success. 2.5 million copies of his books have been sold in Ita ...
, went on stage at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano in 2002. It featured
Antonio Albanese Antonio Albanese (born 10 October 1964 in Olginate, Province of Lecco), is an Italian comedian, actor, director and writer. Biography Born in Lombardy to Sicilian parents, he studied at the Civic Drama School in Milan, then opted to pursue an ...
on stage for the whole opera as actor/singer alongside the chorus and the Buffa orchestra, a fully-fledged character, conducted by the composer himself. In it, the world was seen from the perspective of insects and spiders; Benni's libretto used surrealistic metaphors. Francesconi, who had been known for more dramatic or tragic work, composed music that employed a wide variety of styles, including jazz, avant-garde, and canzonetta, in a parodic manner. ''Buffa opera'' was later revived at the Teatro Morlacchi in Perugia. Commissioned by the Holland Festival, ''Gesualdo Considered as a Murderer'', on a libretto by Vittorio Sermonti, was performed for the first time in Amsterdam in June 2004. It was directed by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, with Davide Damiani as Gesualdo, Eberhard Franscesco Lorenz as his
Iago Iago () is a fictional character in Shakespeare's ''Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Iago is the play's main antagonist, and Othello's standard-bearer. He is the husband of Emilia, who is in turn the attendant of Othello's wife Desdemona. Iago hates ...
-like servant, and Alda Caiello as Gesualdo's wife's maid, and was well-received as a mature dramatic piece.


''Quartett''

In 2011, Francesconi's eighth music theatre work, ''Quartett'', premiered at the Scala in Milan. An adaptation of a text by
Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postdr ...
drawn in its turn from
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos (; 18 October 1741 – 5 September 1803) was a French novelist, official, Freemason and army general, best known for writing the epistolary novel '' Les Liaisons dangereuses'' (''Dangerous Liaisons'' ...
's 1782 novel ''
Les liaisons dangereuses ''Les Liaisons dangereuses'' (; English: ''Dangerous Liaisons'') is a French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in four volumes by Durand Neveu from March 23, 1782. It is the story of the Marquise de Merteuil and ...
'', it was jointly commissioned by Teatro alla Scala, Wiener Festwochen and Ircam. The libretto, by the composer, is in English, a language whose syncretism Francesconi felt aligned with his taste in musical syncretism. The composer and reviewers described it as a cynical and violent work, whose only two characters are a man and a woman, with some sort of past together, in a room. The opera has a single act, thirteen scenes, and lasts a total of an hour and twenty minutes. Only two characters on stage, a small orchestra in the orchestra pit, a large orchestra and choir off-stage (available as a recording effected at the Scala in Milan), and electronics (Studio Ircam, Serge Lemouton: live and pre-recorded sounds). The stage direction at the Scala was entrusted to Alex Olle of
La Fura dels Baus La Fura dels Baus () is a Spanish theatrical group founded in 1979 in Moià, Barcelona (Spain), known for their urban theatre, use of unusual settings and blurring of the boundaries between audience and actor. "La Fura dels Baus" in Catalan mea ...
, who concentrated the action in a huge box suspended twelve metres above the stage, projecting onto the full breadth of the backdrop videos representing the outside world. Allison Cook, mezzo-soprano, interpreted the Marquise de Merteuil, alternating with Sinead Mulhern; Robin Adams, baritone, was Vicomte de Valmont. The conductor was Susanna Mälkki. This production was revived in 2012 in Vienna (Wiener FestWochen: conductor: Peter Rundel), in 2013 at the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam (the opening of the Holland Festival; conductor: Susanna Mälkki) and at the Opera di Lille (Ensemble Ictus: conductor: Georges-Elie Octors), and in 2014 in Lisbon (Gulbenkian Foundation: conductor: Susanna Mälkki). ''Quartett'' was performed in concert form at the Cité de la Musique in Paris by Ensemble Intercontemporain (March 2013). A first new production was staged in Porto and Strasburg, once again with Allison Cook and Robin Adams, and with Remix Ensemble under the direction of Brad Lubman. The stage direction, scenery and costumes were by Nuno Carinhas and the lighting by Nuno Meira (Casa da Musica in Porto on 24 September 2013 and Festival Musica in Strasburg on 28 September 2013). The opera was produced again in London by the Royal Opera House in a coproduction with the Opéra di Rouen and the London Sinfonietta, from 18 to 28 June 2014, with stage direction by John Fulljames. Two casts alternated for the ten performances (Leigh Melrose and Kristin Chávez; and Mark Stone and Angelica Voje) on the metallic structures of a post-atomic bunker realised by Soutra Gilmour, with lighting by Bruno Poet and videos by Ravi Deepres projected onto tattered screens dropped from above in the restrained atmosphere of the Linbury Studio. Under the structures warm and dim lights lit up the London Sinfonietta, conducted by Andrew Gourlay. In 2015 the Malmö Opera presented a fourth production. It was directed by Stefan Johansson, with scenery by Jan Lundberg. Kirstin Chavez interpreted the Marquise de Merteuil and Christian Miedl Vicomte de Valmont; the conductor was Ralf Kircher. The La Fura del Baus production was performed again in Buenos Aires,
Colón Theater Colón may refer to: Places ;Argentina * Colón, Entre Ríos * Colón Department, Córdoba * Colón Department, Entre Ríos * Colón, Buenos Aires ;Colombia * Colón, Nariño * Colón, Putumayo * Colón Department (Colombia) ;Costa Rica * C ...
, in June 2015, with Allison Cook and Robin Adams, director Alex Olle, conductor Brad Lubman. "The press wasn't indifferent at all: "La Fura dels Baus strikes in America as well" (El País); "A high voltage opera" (Clarín); "To the limits of the opera" (La Nación); "Portrait of a crippled bourgeoisie" (Página 12). "Quartett: a wonderful and yet very demanding opera" (Ámbito Financiero).


The Venice Biennale

Today's semantic dictionary can put us in contact with other cultures, embolden us to recuperate magmatic sonorities. The Tarantola del Salento, the songs of Sardinia, African polyphonies. Ethnic music can open deep landscapes of the soul, obscure regions, forgotten loci of consciousness. It's necessary to be courageous, and, like Tarkovsky's Stalker, venture to where ferocious energies lie, in their primitive state. Not "stravaganti" (strange) but "extra vagans" (wandering beyond) towards the incandescent core of origins From 2008 to 2011 Francesconi was the artistic director of the Venice Music Biennale. His imprint was immediately recognisable in the themes of the four festivals ("Roots/Future", "The body of sound", "Don Giovanni and the man of stone" and "Mutants") and it broadened out further in the conception of the festival as the ideal place "to seek new and different forms of perception and attention." Beyond the confines of concert halls and theatres, listeners freely chose how to approach the music, which was disseminated through the city as though on a stage in movement, accessible and without limits. This was the basic idea behind Exit, the celebratory evening/night that brought each of the four festivals to a close, transforming the Teatro alle Tese into a distended human body (Exit 02), "an experience with variable geometry, a new way of living space, sound and time from sunset to dawn", or inviting the public to take a boat towards the Island of San Michele to pay homage to Stravinsky in the form of three clarinet pieces at his tomb and to then participate in a banquet that evoked the finale of Don Giovanni. Don Giovanni was also at the heart of one of the most famous experiments in this four-year period: "Palazzo Pisani, home of the B. Marcello Conservatory, is the site chosen for the staging of Don Giovanni a Venezia, conceived by Francesconi himself. For this initiative, which has been defined as an opera-labyrinth, the public is asked not just to exercise its sensibility but also its intelligence, so as to try to create a kind of gap between space and time in which music can be inserted. After scrapping the old structure of the concert, Francesconi borrows three key scenes from Mozart's original – the duel between Don Giovanni and the Commendatore, the seduction of Zerlina and the death of Don Giovanni – and puts them on stage cyclically, in three different locations within the ancient Venetian palace, inserting in the loggie, palace rooms and courtyards another eight original pieces commissioned from contemporary composers. The spectator, as if he were to enter into a huge gallery and to decide autonomously how and what to look at, will have before his eyes a plurality of musical, scenic, theatrical and visual events to combine, putting aside the perceptive habits of space and time."


Teaching

Luca Francesconi has taught for twenty-five years in Italy's conservatories and at the University of Ohio, in Rotterdam and in Strasburg. He has held master classes throughout Europe and the world, from Japan to the United States, from China to Canada. Until 2019 he has taught composition at the
Malmö Academy of Music Malmö Academy of Music (Swedish: Musikhögskolan i Malmö) is a Swedish public collage dedicated to education and research within the fields of music and music pedagogy. The school is located in Malmö in southern Sweden and belongs to the Facult ...
(part of
Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion

2015


Vertical Invader

''Vertical Invader'', concerto grosso for reed quintet and orchestra. On 23 May world premiere in Amsterdam,
Concertgebouw The Royal Concertgebouw ( nl, Koninklijk Concertgebouw, ) is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" translates into English as "concert building". Its superb acoustics place it among the finest concert halls i ...
, Calefax Reed Quintet: Oliver Boekhoorn (oboe), Ivar Berix (clarinet), Raaf Hekkema (saxophone), Jelte Althuis (bass clarinet) and Alban Wesly (bassoon). Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, conductor Osmo Vänskä. The 'vertical invader' to which the title refers is a metaphor for a connection that is true and profoundly desired – as opposed to the false relationships presented by mass media – a synchronicity that in music is as perennially elusive as it is in the world.


Macchine in echo

On 2 October, the WDR Sinfonieorchester Cologne performed the world premiere of Luca Francesconi's ''Macchine in Echo'' at the Philharmonie in Cologne under the direction of Peter Rundel in collaboration with the piano duo GrauSchumacher. The piece was commissioned by the WDR, the Strasbourg MUSICA festival, and Wiener Konzerthaus. (The Strasbourg MUSICA festival presented the French premiere on 3 October at the closing concert of the festival's 33rd edition.) "When two pianos are involved, we can imagine them as two, frighteningly powerful, fiendish machines. With this piece, in addition to the two pianos, there's also a symphonic orchestra: I love the play of mirrors and the spell-binding multiplications of two pianos in unison with an orchestra. It's an infinite source of meanings: meanings that I need to find, in spite of the destructuration of reality all around us. In a small gesture towards this powerful resistance, I have incorporated a brief homage to Luciano Berio's Concerto for Two Pianos, one of the pieces that have left a profound mark on my life."


Bread, water and salt

On 3 October at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Sir Antonio Pappano together with the soprano Pumeza Matshikiza and the Orchestra and Choir of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, performed the world premiere of ''Bread, Water and Salt'' on texts by
Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
. This piece by Francesconi has been chosen to inaugurate the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia's 2015–16 concert season and will be dedicated by the orchestra to Ludwig van Beethoven. Francesconi says: "This piece was planned together with the 9th Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, in order to create a link between the brotherhood idea of Beethoven and Schiller and what it may mean today. We've chosen Mandela because of his simple adherence to the spirituality of the body, of the bread, of the sofference that can be defeated. Of the goodness, that may seem a worn out common place to us, but for the people who have nothing left, not even dignity, it is the part of the human being that may save them, that may save us. It may defeat the cold cynicism that perverts our relationships. So here comes the brotherhood: all these words, despised in politics and in the media, may really lead us to happiness".


Works, editions and recordings

* ''I Quartetto'' for strings, 1977 * ''Passacaglia'' for great orchestra, 1982 * ''Concertante for'' guitar and ensemble, Tanglewood 1982 * ''Viaggiatore insonne'' for soprano and 5 instruments (text by
Sandro Penna Sandro Penna (June 12, 1906 – January 21, 1977) was an Italian poet. Biography Born in Perugia, Penna lived in Rome for most of his life. He never had a regular job, contributing to several newspapers and writing almost only poetry. His first ...
), 1983 * ''Notte'' for mezzo-soprano and 19 instruments (text by Sandro Penna), 1983–1984 * ''Suite 1984'' for orchestra, African percussionists and jazz quintet with the Orchestra of the Ente Lirico di Cagliari, the Franco D'Andrea's band and Africa Djolé from Ivory Coast, directed by the composer, 1984 * ''Finta-di-nulla'' for soprano and 19 instruments (text by Umberto Fiori), 1985 * ''Onda sonante'' for 8 instruments, 1985 * ''Vertige'' for string orchestra, 1985 * ''Da capo'' for 9 instruments, 1985–1986 * ''Encore/Da capo'' for 9 instruments, 1985–1995 * ''Impulse II'' for clarinet, violin and piano, 1985, 1995 * ''Al di là dell'oceano famoso'' for 8 solo mixed voices, Netherland Radio Chamber Choir, 1985 * ''Secondo quartetto'' (Mondriaan Quartet) * ''Tracce'' for flute, 1985–1987 * ''Plot in fiction'' for bassoon, English horn and 11 instruments, 1986 * ''Respiro'' for trombone solo, 1987 * ''Trama'' for saxophone and orchestra, 1987 * ''Mambo'', for piano solo, 1987 * ''Attesa'' for reed quartet, 1988 * ''La voce'', folk song for soprano and 13 instruments (text by Umberto Fiori), 1988 * ''Aeuia'' for baritone and 11 instruments (based on a text by di
Jacopone da Todi Jacopone da Todi, O.F.M. (ca. 1230 – 25 December 1306) was an Italian Franciscan friar from Umbria. He wrote several ''laude'' (songs in praise of the Lord) in the local vernacular. He was an early pioneer in Italian theatre, being one of ...
), 1989 * ''Les barricades mystérieuses'' for flute and orchestra, 1989 * ''Piccola trama'' for saxophone and 8 instruments, 1989 * ''Richiami II – 1st study on memory'', 1989–1992 * ''Memoria'' for orchestra, 1990 * ''Secondo Concerto'' for oboe and chamber orchestra, 1991 * ''Mittel'' for five moving bands, 1991 * ''Riti neurali, 3rd study on memory'' for violin and 8 instruments, 1991 * ''Islands concerto'' for piano and chamber orchestra, 1992 * ''Miniature'' for 16 instruments, 1992 * ''Voci'' for soprano, violin and magnetic tape (text by Umberto Fiori), 1992 * ''Aria'' for wind octet, 1993 * ''Plot II'' for saxophone and 15 instruments, 1993 * ''Risonanze d'Orfeo'', suite for wind orchestra from ''
Orfeo Orfeo Classic Schallplatten und Musikfilm GmbH of Munich was a German independent classical record label founded in 1979 by Axel Mehrle and launched in 1980. It has been owned by Naxos since 2015. History The Orfeo music label was registered ...
'' di
Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered ...
, 1993 * ''Trama II'' for clarinet, orchestra and live electronics, 1993 * ''Terzo quartetto "Mirrors" ''for strings,
Arditti Quartet The Arditti Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1974 and led by the British violinist Irvine Arditti. The quartet is a globally recognized promoter of contemporary classical music and has a reputation for having a very wide repertoire. T ...
, De Singel Antwerpen, 1994 * ''Ballata del rovescio del mondo'', radio-opera on texts by Umberto Fiori, 1994 * ''Etymo'' for soprano, chamber orchestra and live electronics, from
Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
, commission by IRCAM for soprano, Ensemble InterContemporain, conductor
Pascal Rophé Pascal Rophé (born 16 June 1960) is a French conductor. He is currently music director of the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire. Biography Born in Paris, Rophé studied as early as 1974 at the Conservatoire de Paris, first studying the ...
, soprano Luisa Castellani, Klangregie by the composer,1994 * ''A fuoco – 4th study on memory'' for guitar and ensemble, 1995 * ''Animus'' for trombone and live electronics, 1995–1996 * ''Inquieta limina. Un omaggio a Berio'' for ensemble with accordion, 1996 * ''Venti Radio-Lied'', radiofilms, texts by Umberto Fiori, with
Moni Ovadia Salomone "Moni" Ovadia (born 16 April 1946 in Plovdiv) is a Bulgarian-born Italian actor, musician, singer and theatrical author. He is one of the most highly regarded figures in contemporary Italian culture. His theatrical performances recall ...
and Phillis Blanford, 1996–1997 * ''Sirene/Gespenster'', Heathen Oratorio for female choir in four cantorie, brasses, percussion and electronics, 1996–1997 * ''Striaz,'' video-opera for 4 female choirs and electronics, production Mittelfest/Video: Studio Azzurro, 1996 * ''Ballata'', opera, 1996–1999, text by Umberto Fiori from The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner by
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...
, commission by Théâtre de la Monnaie di Bruxelles, conductor Kazushi Ono, stage director
Achim Freyer Achim Freyer (; born 30 March 1934) is a German stage director, set designer and painter. A protégé of Bertolt Brecht, Freyer has become one of the world's leading opera directors, working throughout Europe and, since 2002, in the United Stat ...
* ''Respondit'', two madrigals by
Carlo Gesualdo Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa ( – 8 September 1613) was Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza. As a composer he is known for writing madrigals and pieces of sacred music that use a chromatic language not heard again until the late 19th century ...
transcribed and revised per 5 instruments with an electronic spacing, 1997 *
Lips, Eyes Bang
', for actress/singer, 12 instruments, audio and video in real time, Amsterdam, Nieuw Ensemble, AGON, Studio Azzurro, STEIM, voice Phyllis Blandford, 1998. * ''Memoria II'' for orchestra, 1998 *
Wanderer
' for great orchestra, January 2000
Teatro alla Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...
,
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, conductor
Riccardo Muti Riccardo Muti, (; born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor. He currently holds two music directorships, at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and at the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Muti has previously held posts at the Maggio Musicale ...
, Filarmonica della Scala * ''Cobalt, Scarlet. Two Colours of Dawn'' for large orchestra, 1999–2000 * ''Terre del rimorso'', (finished in 2001), commissioned by État francese for soli, coro and orchestra, for the Festival di Strasburgo, 6 October 2001, SWR Symphonie Orchester and Vokalensemble Stuttgart, conductor Péter Eötvös, 2000–2001 * ''Aria Novella'', for double quartet, Paris, Ensemble Itinéraire, 2001 * ''Let me Bleed'', Requiem for
Carlo Giuliani Carlo Giuliani was an Italian anti-globalization protester who was shot dead while attacking a Carabinieri van with a fire extinguisher, by an officer who was inside the van, during the anti-globalization riots outside the July 2001 G8 summit i ...
for mixed choir a cappella commissioned by New London Chamber Choir, on texts by
Attilio Bertolucci Attilio Bertolucci (18 November 1911 – 14 June 2000) was an Italian poet and writer. He was father to film directors Bernardo and Giuseppe Bertolucci. Biography Bertolucci was born at San Lazzaro ( province of Parma), to a family of agricult ...
, 2001 New London Chamber Choir, James Wood (World Premiere
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (also known by the acronym HCMF, stylised since 2006 as the lowercase hcmf//) is a new music festival held annually in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Since its foundation in 1978, it has featured ...
2001-12-02), Swedish Radio Choir, SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, RSO Stuttgart, Eötvös *
Buffa opera
' texts by
Stefano Benni Stefano Benni (born 12 August 1947) is an Italian satirical writer, poet and journalist. His books have been translated into around 20 foreign languages and scored notable commercial success. 2.5 million copies of his books have been sold in Ita ...
, singer and actor
Antonio Albanese Antonio Albanese (born 10 October 1964 in Olginate, Province of Lecco), is an Italian comedian, actor, director and writer. Biography Born in Lombardy to Sicilian parents, he studied at the Civic Drama School in Milan, then opted to pursue an ...
, 2002 *
Controcanto
', ensemble of 10 to 25 instruments, world premiere in Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Ensemble Ictus, conductor Georges-Elie Octors, 2003 * Cello concerto "Rest" Quartetto d'archi di Torino,
Ensemble Intercontemporain The Ensemble intercontemporain (EIC) is a French music ensemble, based in Paris, that is dedicated to contemporary music. Pierre Boulez founded the EIC in 1976 for this purpose, the first permanent organization of its type in the world. Organi ...
, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI,
Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mont ...
,
Roberto Abbado Roberto Abbado (born 30 December 1954, Milan) is an Italian opera and symphonic music conducting, conductor. Currently he is Artistic Partner of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 2015 he has been appointed music director of Palau de les Arts R ...
*
Gesualdo Considered as a Murderer
', opera, libretto by
Vittorio Sermonti Vittorio is an Italian male given name which has roots from the Byzantine-Bulgarian name Victor. People with the given name Vittorio include: * Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, pretender to the former Kingdom of Italy * Vittorio Adorni, pro ...
, 2004 *
Quarto Quartetto I voli di Niccolò
'' string quartet, commission by Paganiniana 2004, Genoa, to Cesare Mazzonis, Arditti Quartet, 2004 * ''Kubrick's Bone'', for cimbalom and ensemble, 2005 * ''Accordo'' reed quintet, Calefax, 2005 * ''Body Electric'', for violino, guitar rig and double ensemble, Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw, Orkest de Volharding and Doelen Ensemble, conductor Jussi Jaatinen, soloist Irvine Arditti, 2006 * ''Sea Shell'' for great chorus, on a text by Alceo (translated by
Salvatore Quasimodo Salvatore Quasimodo (; August 20, 1901 – June 14, 1968) was an Italian poet and translator. In 1959, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own time ...
). Swedish Radio Choir, Stockholm, 2006 * ''Da capo II'', for 8 instruments, Settimane Musicali di Stresa, Ensemble Bit20, conductor J. Stockhammer, 2007 *
Animus II
', for viola and live electronics, Paris, Ircam Espace de projection, Festival Agora, soloist Garth Knox, commission by Françoise and Jean-Philippe, 2007 * ''Strade parallele'', for 6 instruments, electronics and video on a text by Norberto Bobbio, Rome, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Ensemble Alter Ego, 2007 * ''Hard Pace''; for trumpet and orchestra, Rome, Auditorium, Orchestra of Santa Cecilia Academy, soloist
Håkan Hardenberger Ulf Håkan Hardenberger (born 27 October 1961 in Malmö) is a Swedish trumpeter. Taking up the trumpet at the age of eight under the guidance of hometown teacher Bo Nilsson, Hardenberger pursued further studies at the Paris Conservatoire, with P ...
, conductor Antonio Pappano, 2007 *
Fresco
', for five moving bands, 2007 *
Unexpected End of Formula
', for cello, ensemble and electronics, Köln, WDR FunkHaus, musikFabrik conductor Christian Eggen, soloist Dirk Wietheger, ZKM live-elektronik, 2008 * ''Animus III'', for tuba and live electronics, Köln, WDR FunkHaus, soloist Melvyn Poore, ZKM Live-Elektronik, 2008 *
Sirènes
', for mixed choir in five groups, orchestra and electronics, commissioned by Ircam-
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
, 2009 * ''Time, Real and Imaginary'', Commande d'État francese for mezzo-soprano and four instruments on a text by
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...
, 2009 * ''Attraverso'', for soprano and ensemble, Monteverdi celebrations, commissioned by Music Across Festival of Lombardy and the Teatro Ponchielli of Cremona, 2009 * ''Jeu de Musica'', for ensemble, Strasbourg, Festival Musica, 2010 *
Quartett
', opera, libretto written in English by the composer, from the pièce by
Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postdr ...
, commission by
Teatro alla Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...
, stage direction by
La Fura dels Baus La Fura dels Baus () is a Spanish theatrical group founded in 1979 in Moià, Barcelona (Spain), known for their urban theatre, use of unusual settings and blurring of the boundaries between audience and actor. "La Fura dels Baus" in Catalan mea ...
, conductor Susanna Mälkki, 2011 * ''Terra'', opera-oratorio, libretto by Valeria Parrella, opening of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Italian Republic, Naples,
Teatro San Carlo The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent t ...
, stage director Jean Kalman, conductor Jonathan Webb, 2011 *
Herzstück
', based on a text by
Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postdr ...
, commission by Neue Vocalsolisten for the Eclat Festival, 2012 * ''Atopia'', oratorio based on a text by
Piero della Francesca Piero della Francesca (, also , ; – 12 October 1492), originally named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca i ...
and Calderón della Barca, Madrid, 2012 * ''Piano Concerto'', for pianoforte and orchestra, with Nic Hodges, Oporto 2013 * ''Duende, The Dark Notes'', with Leila Josefowicz, coproduction of Swedish Radio, RAI, BBC Proms, 2014 * ''Dentro non ha tempo'', for large orchestra, in memoriam Luciana Pestalozza, commission by
Teatro alla Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...
, conductor
Esa-Pekka Salonen Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and music di ...
, 2014 * ''Vertical Invader'', concerto grosso for reed quintet and orchestra, Calefax Reed Quintet, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest and Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest conducted by Osmo Vänskä, 2015. * ''Bread, Water and Salt'', Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, conductor Antonio Pappano, soprano Pumeza Matshikiza * ''Corpo Elettrico'', for violin and orchestra, Porto, 2021


References


Sources

* Giancarlo Francesconi, by E. Tadini, Milan, Salone Annunciata, 1959 * Sergio Badino, Conversazione con Carlo Chendi. Da Pepito alla Disney e oltre: cinquant'anni di fumetto vissuti da protagonista, Tenué 2006 * Ricciarda Belgiojoso, "Note d'autore. A tu per tu con i compositori d'oggi", Postmedia Books, 2013 * Guido Barbieri, Francesconi, Luca, Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani – Appendix VII (2007) * Luca Francesconi, Les Esprits libres, in VV. AA. La loi musicale – Ce que la lecture de l'histoire nous (dés)apprend, edited by D. Cohen Levinas, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2000 * Christopher Thomas, Metier, msvcd 92018
Divine Art Recordings Group
* Andrew Clements, Gesualdo Considered as a Murder, The Guardian, Friday 11 June 2004 * Quartett – interview to Luca Francesconi, Teatro alla Scala, Season 2010/2011 * Alexander Destuet, Quartett de Luca Francesconi: la Fura dels Baus ataca otra vez, La Vanguardia 3 July 2015 * Franco Fayenz, Si chiude la ribalta della Scala per Quartett, antologia di soluzioni geniali, Il Sole 24 ore, 8 May 2011 * Silva Menetto, Alla Biennale protagonisti il Don Giovanni a Venezia e giovani ensemble da tutta Europa, Il Sole 24 ore, 30 September 2010 * Giuseppina Manin, La musica è finita, Corriere della sera, 16 September 2008 * Giuseppina Manin, Le mie note sospese per Luciana Abbado, Corriere della Sera, 12 June 2014 * Luca Francesconi, Il sacrificio dei musicisti italiani, Milan, 2005 * Andrew Clements, Prom 13: BBCSO/Mälkki/Josefowicz review – committed and astoundingly vivid, The Guardian, 28 July 2015 * Marie-Aude Roux, Ballata, drame syncretique de Francesconi, Le Monde, 14 November 2002 * Luca Francesconi, Cerca e ricerca, Milan 199
Pappano, Rundel and Storgards conduct Francesconi
* Massimiliano Viel, Incontro con Luca Francesconi: Il calcolo e l'intuizione. L'elettronica come sfida, in Sonus, Materiali per la musica contemporanea, issue no. 11, December 1993 {{DEFAULTSORT:Francesconi, Luca 1956 births Living people Italian composers Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize winners