Repertoire
Magnus Lindberg:
Corrente (1992)
Souvenir (2010)
…de Tartuffe, je crois (1981)
Artists
ESMUC Ensemble
Ernest Martínez Izquierdo, conductor
Program
The title of the first piece, Corrente will conjure up the Baroque period to music lovers. Indeed, its suggested links with a courante have a certain logic, since the title gives us some clues to the work. We will hear how an ostinato can be converted into a vibrant, obsessive leitmotif, better suited to combatting a sense of horror vacui. Souvenir (Memory) also feeds on the past: it is a kind of miniature symphony, both in terms of the number of performers and its division into movements, hence implying the deployment of sound in each one for dramatic purposes. The first movement has a very specific quality, emanating right from the outset through the blocks that open the piece. The second spurns the supposed tranquillity that its slower tempo ought to convey, and it is characterised by a certain disturbing treacle-like feel. In the third movement, timbral specificities are used as a nostalgic gesture. As Lindberg acknowledges, small ensembles have long been used as a test laboratory by many creators when they are unable to premiere work with orchestras. This is the case of this tribute to Gérard Grisey and to the Italian composer Franco Donatoni, from whose work of the same name, written in 1967, the title was taken.
