Picture of Kenneth Karlsson (Photo: Siv Dolmen)
The Italian composer Luigi Nono (1924–1990) is referred to as one of the most central – and radical – composers of the last century. On 29 January, he would have turned a hundred years old, and during the Bergen International Festival his anniversary is celebrated with a concert featuring musicians from the chamber ensemble Cikada, SWR Experimentalstudio, tubaist Max Murray and mezzo soprano Zsuzsa Zseni.
– Nono expands and enlarges even the most delicate sounds of the ensemble and uses live electronics almost like a magnifying glass to showcase what exists in this microscopic world, conductor Dániel Péter Biró explains. The works on the first program were created at SWR Experimentalstudio, which has worked for more than 50 years with music utilising live electronics. Throughout the 1980s, Luigi Nono was a regular presence in the studio, which has also been a workplace for composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez.
The concert is organised in collaboration between Bergen International Festival, the Grieg Academy (UiB) and the symposium and artistic research project and symposium In Nono's Footsteps.
Immidiatly after the first concert with the works by Nono, four compositions created by the next generation of composers – Ljubov Katerli, Ida Grande Kaurin, James Layton and Julia Constance Wiger-Nordås – responding to the works by Nono, will be premiered in a second concert in the University Aula.