sequenza i for solo flute by berio riccorenze for wind quintet by berio rendering by berio

8/18/2019 Sequenza I for Solo Flute by Berio Riccorenze for Wind Quintet by Berio Rendering by Berio

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Only Connect...Sequenza I for Solo Flute by Berio; Riccorenze for Wind Quintet by Berio; Rendering byBerioReview by: David Osmond-SmithThe Musical Times, Vol. 134, No. 1800 (Feb., 1993), pp. 80-81Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1002409 .

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2/3

Music

reviews

ON Y CONNECT

David

Osmond-Smith on recent

Berio scores

It is a

telling

coincidence that the new score of Berio's

Sequenza

I

for

solo

flute should become available within a

few

months of the death of the man for whom it was written.

Through long

association

with

the

Darmstadt summer

schools,

Severino Gazzelloni became the

catalyst

for a distinctive

style

of

flute-writing

-

elegant, quixotic

and sensual

-

that

crystallised

into exemplaryform in SequenzaI. The original 1958 version of

this

score was

presented

in

proportional

notation

and

published

in

this form

by

Suvini Zerboni. Based

on

a

temporal

grid,

against

which Berio could

plot

fluid

rhythms

with

accuracy,

it

challenged

Gazzelloni to create

apparent spontaneity

out

of dis-

ciplined

score-reading.

Unfortunately,

not all of

the

many

flautists who

subsequently

took

up

the work have

fully grasped

that

challenge.

Some,

indeed,

have

imagined

that

proportional

notation was

an inivita-

tion to

quasi-improvisatory

ubato. Berio has therefore rewritten

the

score

in

conventional notation

-

a

version

recently published

by

Universal Edition. It makes for vivid

reading:

the music

leaps

LUCIANO

BERIO:

POLEMICIST

F THE

INCOMPLETE

hoto Universal Edition

off the

page

in

a

way

that the less conventional

Suvini Zerboni

score does not

suggest.

Yet

there is

a

price

to

be

paid.

The fluid

spring

of the

original

resolves into

simpler relationships,

often

suggesting

an

underlying

quaver

or

crotchet

pulse

for a few

seconds. The conventionaluse of beamsto

join

smaller

rhythmic

units into

quaver

and crotchet

groups encourages

a

very

different

view of structuralprioritieswithin the phrase. It would be inter-

esting

to

hear

performances

from

the

two notations

side

by

side:

I

think one could tell

them

apart.

Subsequent Sequenzas

have revealed

the

range

of Berio's

imaginative sympathy

for

wind

players

(he

was after

all himself

a clarinetist

during

his student

days),

but

only

recently

has he

turned

his

attention

to wind ensembles. And

it

is

precisely

con-

siderations of ensemble that

predominate

n

Ricorrenze

for wind

quintet

(1985-87):

even

though

the members of

the

quintet

are

spaced

at least two

metres

apart,

the

flamboyant writing

of the

Sequenzas

is here

held in

check.

Individual melodic

strands

eap

between

instruments,

often clouded

for

a moment

by heterophon-

ic interaction.

As in so

many

of Berio's recent

works,

the

background pace is set by a gradual evolution in harmonic

resources.

It

is

spare, sophisticated writing,

well aware of the

wind

quintet's

background

n

diversion,

and a far

cry

from the d

rebours

approach

o

the

medium

adopted by Schoenberg.

Although

Berio has often showed

his skill as an

orchestrator

Rendering

(1988-90)

takes

up

the more

complex

issue

of how

we

respond

to

composers'

sketches:

in this instance the

Symphony

in D

major

D.936A

upon

which Schubert

was

working during

the

final weeks of his

life. In

calculated

opposi-

tion to

those

musicologists

who

propose

to

'complete'

unfinished

works

by

an exercise

in

pastiche,

Berio underlines

the

fragmen-

tary

nature of his materials.

He likens his

procedure

to that of

modernfresco restorers

who,

while

seeking

to revive

the colour

on surviving painting, make no attempt to fill in portions that

have

flaked

away,

but

instead leave them

empty.

The

filling

or

'rendering'

(one

of several

possible

meanings

for

his

punning

title)

is not however

the musical

equivalent

of

neutral

plaster.

Instead,

Berio creates

a 'connective

tissue',

a dense

orchestral

polyphony, always distant, always quiet,

but shot

through

with

allusions

to Schubert'slate

works,

notably

the final

piano

sonata,

Winterreise

and

the B flat

major

Trio.

Schubert worked

his sketches for the

D

major

Symphony

on

two,

sometimes three

staves.

In order to allow the

score

reader

The Musical

Times

0

February

1993


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full

opportunity

to

explore,

Universal Edition have

printed

Schubert's often skeletal

original

below Berio's

realisation.

Berio

adopts

the same orchestral forces and instrumental

style

as

did Schubert

in

the 'Unfinished'

Symphony, though adding

the

alien sound of the celesta

to

underline the advent

of

'connective

tissue',

where

strings expand

into

a divisi cloud. Schubert

sketched three movements: an

opening allegro,

a slow move-

ment,

and a

fast

duple

movement,

presumably

the

finale. All are

far

from

complete.

Indeed,

the materials for the first would seem

to consist of

two alternative sketches

for

an

exposition,

and a

coda.

The first

exposition

is abandoned

as

it reaches a second

theme

poised

between mediant minor and

dominant

(after

the

manner

of the Ninth

Symphony).

The

second,

starting

from

just

before the

transition,

follows

the

same skeletal

outline as the

G

major

string

quartet:

a cadence

on iii

leaping

straight

into

V

for

an extended

second

subject

that veers

into

IIIb

and back

again.

Both have the same restless air

of

plotting

out wide tonal

ten-

sions,

and

Berio's

realisation does

not

attempt

to

mitigate

the

tentative,

exploratory

natureof the sketches as

they emerge

from,

and resolve back into

his

'rendering'.

The Andante

in

B minor offers a more distinctive musical

statement,

ent

consistency by

the fact that the

second

group,

in F

sharp

minor,

grows

out of the bassoon

countersubject

to the

opening theme. With an air of quiet desolation, the opening

melody

comes

repeatedly

to

rest

upon

the

supertonic,

prompting

Berio

to

explore

the

analogy

with the

organ-grinder's

tune from

the final

song

of

Winterreise. Two weeks before he

died,

Schubert

arranged

o start

counterpoint

essons with the

theorist,

Simon

Sechter,

and it

is in

the last movement that this new-found

enthusiasm comes

fully

to life. The

angular

melody

that

he

employs

has

an

almost Slavonic

character,

underlined

by

obses-

sive reiterations. But Schubert seems

bent

upon

thematic inte-

gration:

the first

episode

that follows

echoes the first

movement's main theme.

Here, too,

one

may

suspect

that

Schubert was

weighing

up

alternatives. The two sketches

that

make

up

the bulk

of

Berio's movement follow similar

key

schemes but use different

subsidiary

materials.

They

are fol-

lowed

by vigorous fugal perorations (again

two,

again perhaps

alternative).

The

provisional

nature

of

these

fragments

means that

one

should

not take Berio's

suggested parallel

with the

restorationof

a fresco too

literally. Apart

from

the

Andante,

which

at

least

suggests

a

ternarygroup,

there is no sense of overall structure o

lock

each

fragment

into

place.

On the other

hand,

Berio's

polemic against

the

compulsion

to

complete may

well strike

a

chord with a

generation

reared less

upon

the

concert-hall,

with

its

enforced concentration

upon

'whole'

works,

than

upon

indef-

initely

repeatable

and

interruptible

domestic

listening.

Art-lovers

have

long

been

willing

to

put

the

fragment

or sketch

within

a

frame,

and

enjoy

its sense of the virtual as much as

-

in

some

instances

more

than

-

the

'complete'

work that it

heralds.

Berio's

Rendering

asserts the same

possibility

for

music.

Berio. SequenzaIfor solo flute.

Edizione Suvini ZerbonilUniversal

Edition,

?7.60.

Berio.

Riccorenze

or

wind

quintet.

Universal

Edition,

?24.75.

Berio.

Rendering.

Universal

Edition,

?62.10

=-70

>5i

$

5

1

-

3

>

m

ffsempref

ff f

jyMOT/?rc~~~~~~~~~~~~ff>lt

Two VERSIONS

OF BERIO'S

FLUTE

SEQUENZA.

TOP:

THE ORIGINAL VERSION

(1958),

IN

UNMETRED,

PROPORTIONAL

NOTATION. BOTTOM: THE NEW VERSION

(1992),

IN CONVENTIONAL

NOTATION.

MUSIC EXAMPLES

COPYRIGHT

EDIZIONE SUVINI

ZERBONI

AND

UNIVERSAL

EDITION,

REPRODUCED BY

PERMISSION OF UNIVERSAL EDITION

The Musical Times

ebruary

1993

81

sequenza i for solo flute by berio riccorenze for wind quintet by berio rendering by berio

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