Arturo Tamayo

The works of Clemens Gadenstätter are a wonderful example of how an analytical approach to the phenomenon of hearing may result in music that sincerely moves its listener. This production, entitled Portrait, represents a kind of screen capture of Gadenstätter’s work.

This CD is concerned with the origins of the musical identity of Goffredo Petrassi (1904-2003). The works date from the 'Partita' of 1932, which won a musician's union prize and was chosen to represent Italy in the ISCM in Amsterdam in 1933; to his orchestral suite 'La Follia di Orlando' from 1945. It represents an example from Petrassi’s relatively brief career of music for the stage.

Quadrivium was composed in 1969 and marks the beginning of Maderna’s final creative period, during which he wrote impressive and headstrong works for large symphonic forces. Aura was commissioned for the 80th anniversary of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and was premiered in 1972. Amanda was written in 1966 and is uninhibited, cheerful and lyrical.

Bruno Maderna was one of the leading figures of Europe’s postwar avant-garde and was the embodiment of the free spirit. Ausstrahling was written for female voice, flute, oboe, orchestra and prerecorded tape (1971) and is a sort of journey through the literary and spiritual history of Persia. Boigramma is a work of contrast and retroflection, each section emphasizing different instruments.

Bruno Maderna finished his first large-scale orchestral works in the 1950s. They were preceded by a series of chamber pieces he had written in the aftermath of World War II. The very plain titles – “Composition”, “Exercise”, “Improvisation” – bear witness to the creative place within which the music is situated

The five orchestral works in this comprehensive anthology have a common nucleus pointing to the core interests which Bruno Maderna pursued from 1954 to 1966: experiments with a post-serial harmonic vocabulary, and a search for dramatic structures. This CD includes Composition in Three Tempi, Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, Aria, Dimension III and Stele per Diotima.