Como Una Ola de Fuerza y Luz/Sofferte Onde Serene/Contrapunto Dialettico Alla Mente

AMG Review of Como Una Ola de Fuerza y Luz/Sofferte Onde Serene/Contrapunto Dialettico Alla Mente

Sylvie Harrison
All Music Guide

A collection of '70s works made under the direction of Claudio Abaddo and Nino Antonellini, respectively. On this disc, the great 20th century avant-garde composer's electro-acoustic work is presented in the highest standard, as one would expect from Deutshe Grammophon. The three pieces of the title were composed between '68 and '78, and are considered by many to be the quintessential works by the Venetian composer. Atonality is used to express the subject matter of "Como Una Ola de Fuerza y Luz"; the text of the operetta addresses the communist revolutionary politics of which Nono sympathized throughout his life. The work uses a small orchestra, tape, and the soprano of Slavka Taskova, and is an arresting display of vertuosic composition using an avant-garde language of a 20th century master. "Sofferte Onde Serene" is an extraction on the relationship between piano and live tape machine that is explored in the previous piece in the context of the orchestra. Nono achieves stunning effects of interactivity beween pre-recorded and live piano performed by Maurizio Pollini. "Contrapunto Dialettico Alla Mente" is a 1968 tape and vocal piece which is highly politicized, a critique of the Vietnam War. Using a poem by revolutionary poet Sonia Sanchez on the assassination of Malcolm X, the European composer used his removed viewpoint to ruminate on the politics of the time. Within the context of his dexterous skill as a tape music composer, this piece comes to life as a strongly narrative and sonically complex modernist work.