laRegione — Alfredo

Program note — 16 January 2022

Without hesitation, when we think of the voice—whether a solo voice or a choir—our thoughts turn clearly towards notions such as “expressivity,” “emotion,” “nostalgia,” and “elsewhere.” As the most inward and intimate of instruments—for it produces sounds and vibrations without any intermediary, directly from within our body—the voice is inevitably connected to the self, to personal experience, and to individual emotions. Autobiographical elements which, as in the case of the Manfred Symphony, then become shared terrain: a world in which one may find and recognise oneself.

If this complex period we are living through has taught us anything, it is that our existence, our everyday life, cannot forgo surrendering to these dimensions of being, as well as to many others that are deeper and more complex still. This is why, in consultation with Markus Poschner and Christian Weidmann, I decided to employ in this very special project not only a solo voice, but also a children’s choir, bearing a sense of the pristine and of incandescent naïveté. The voice—more intangible still than it already is—is woven, through these new musical numbers, into the Manfred Symphony like a sudden evocation: as though something long forgotten or neglected were unexpectedly imposing itself upon our minds and memories. Sometimes a memory arises because of a context, through elements that prompt recollection; at other times it returns suddenly, at the least expected moment. It is through this sense of “suddenly” that the series of pieces for choir, mezzo-soprano and orchestra I composed for the OSI intertwines, at times unexpectedly, with Tchaikovsky’s symphony. Only in this way does it reveal, across historical distance and within a poetic perspective, an unprecedented alliance and dialogue.

Critical reception

“I am struck by […] the restless, seductive contemplation of the abyss of the things I do not know.”

— Enrico Colombo, laRegione

Read the full review (Italian)