Klang Systematiek: Nono — Sani

The second concert in this year's Klang Systematiek series will feature works by two Italian composers: Io, frammento dal Prometeo by Luigi Nono and the AchaB cycle by Nicola Sani. Both pieces offer an immersive experience – the audience will be surrounded by an eight-channel sound system, with the musicians positioned in the middle of the audience.

Luigi Nono was one of the most important composers of the 20th century. Born in Venice in 1924, he graduated with a law degree in Padua. Attending summer courses in Darmstadt has brought him into contact with other significant figures of post-war new music. He moved away from the serialist emphasis on instrumental work with his focus on vocal compositions, using texts that reflected contemporary political themes. Nono strove to synthesize the abstract musical language of the 1950s avant-garde with a clear emotional, ethical, and often leftist and anti-fascist message. From the late 1970s, the composer's style changed significantly. His compositions became quieter and slower, and with a stable group of instrumentalists, he sought new sounds using extended techniques and real-time electronic sound processing at the WDR (West German Radio) studio in Freiburg. The musical language of the last decade of his life can be summarized as a virtuosity of unstable sounds on the edge of audibility, amplified and often transformed by electronic means. The piece for choir and vocal and instrumental solos, Io, Frammento dal Prometeo, dates to 1981, the beginning of this period. As the title suggests, it is a fragment of the monumental opera Prometeo (which had its Czech premiere at the New Opera Days Ostrava in 2022), which Nono completed three years later and which was described by the Belgian critic Stefan Beyst as one of the greatest musical compositions of the last century. Io, Frammento dal Prometeo offers a compact glimpse into the sound world of Prometeo.

The solo parts will be performed by sopranos Maria Eleonora Caminada and Maria Eleonora Caminada under the baton of Marco Angius. The choral parts will be performed by members of the Canticum Ostrava choir. Daniel Havel will play the bass flute and Gareth Davis the contrabass clarinet. The realization of the electronic components will be handled by Alvise Vidolin, a leading Italian expert on live electronics.

This will be followed by three compositions from the AchaB cycle by the contemporary Italian composer Nicola Sani. Sani is a prominent figure in contemporary Italian music. In the past, he has been the artistic director of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, has chaired the Fondazione Isabella Scelsi, is a member of the board of the Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono di Venezia, and has led the Accademia Chigiana di Siena for ten years. He studied composition with Domenico Guaccero, Giorgio Nottoli, and later with Karlheinz Stockhausen. His compositional work intersects with other artistic disciplines, especially video art, painting, and architecture. He writes instrumental works, as well as music for musicals and dance. He focuses on electronic music, which he perceives as an extension of instrumental music, and wrote the seminal book for the Italian scene, Musica espansa ("Expanded Music").

More information can be found on the website www.klangsystematiek.com or on the social media network @klangfieldmusic.

The concert is produced with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and State Fund of Culture, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague, CIDIM, and under the patronage of the Italian Embassy in Prague.