Classical CD

Berio: Canticum Novissimi Testamenti; A-Ronne, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart/ Newears4Clarinets/ Xasax/ Rundel

4 out of 5 4
Berio: Canticum Novissimi Testamenti; A-Ronne
Berio: Canticum Novissimi Testamenti; A-Ronne

The writings of Edoardo Sanguineti connect A-Ronne, the "radiophonic documentary for five actors" that Berio wrote in 1975, and the 1988 ballad for eight singers and quartets of clarinets and saxophones Canticum Novissimi Testamenti. Sanguineti was one of the composer's closest collaborators for more than 40 years, and had a profound influence on his thinking about the relationship between words and music. Altogether they collaborated on five works, of which these were the last: the abstract theatre of A-Ronne is built around a polyglot poem by Sanguineti, while the Canticum sets a shortened version from his meditation on death and posterity, with the reed instruments providing a counterpoint to the closely woven vocal writing.

The only other recording of A-Ronne is the eight-voice version of the piece made for the Swingle Singers; this account of the original, more rough-hewn, is closer to Berio's ideals of a piece that crosses boundaries - between speech and song, theatre and opera, high art and the vernacular.

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