The night was magic: the music floated with joy, intensity and passion and we found a meeting point in a bled of minimalist patterns and sound explorations. (Andrea Centazzo)

The Shadow and the Silence (Homage to Pier Paolo Pasolini)
Andrea Centazzo Mitteleuropa Orchestra

ICTUS 302 (2007)

The night was magic: the music floated with joy, intensity and passion and we found a meeting point in a bled of minimalist patterns and sound explorations. (Andrea Centazzo)

Tracks:

1. Alba
2. Corots
3. Profun di sera
4. Suite Furlana
5. Suspir de me mari ta na rosa
6. Laris
7. Corots
8. Conzeit
9. Finale

Performed by:

Andrea Centazzo Mitteleuropa Orchestra, Andrea Centazzo, conductor
Gabriela Ravazzi - soprano
Marco Puntin - narrator

Recorded:

1992

About:

""Omaggio a Pier Paolo Pasolini"' (Homage to Pier Paolo Pasolini), written in 1985, commissioned by the commemoration committee for the tenth anniversary of the poet's death, the orchestra is joined by a soprano singer and a narrator. In the latter, Centazzo paid homage with his music to Pasolini, an artist with whom he shared Friulian origins and a close connection with the city of Bologna. Centazzo's interest in Pasolini was not just the result of these circumstances, the composer had been inspired by the artistic and intellectual unquiet of Pasolini for some time and was intimately familiar with both the literary and cinematic works of Pasolini. Centazzo's study of Pasolini's poetry, in Friulian dialect, is very much part of the music. A provincial tongue which through Pasolini takes on a literary dignity. Prior to this time, "Friulano" had been practically limited to oral tradition. "Pasolini said that to write a word that had never before been written, would give a new consistency to the sound, would move that sound toward the territory of meaning; a meaning of full bodied sounds, and a truly natural sensuality." Centazzo's music in Omaggio a Pier Paolo Pasolini is aimed at the recovery of that sound; he put to music seven lyrics in Friulian dialect taken from Poesie Dimenticate (forgotten poems) and from Tal Cur Di Un Frút, re-inventing traditional sonorities with "new" instruments, in a compositional tapestry which consciously balances minimalist episodes with echoes of the European contemporary orchestra, entrusting the texts to the narrator and the voice of the soprano. This work has been presented outside of Italy in 1987: in Munich, Germany at the Gasteig, home of the Philharmonic Orchestra; and at the Expo in Seville, Spain in 1992, when Centazzo presented a re-organized Mitteleuropa enhanced by the presence of the finest soloists on the contemporary Italian scene. Omaggio a Pier Paolo Pasolini was performed in large part due to Roberto Manuzzi's zeal. This very gifted musician had performed as both a saxophone and keyboard soloist in nearly all Centazzo s productions since the formation of Mitteleuropa Orchestra. A fortuitous encounter which would provide Centazzo with no invaluable collaborator to this musical adventure. Summing up his activity as a composer Centazzo says, "I a truly happy that, as a composer, I have never suffered from the typical syndrome of the classical composer who writes only for ideal instrumental combinations, for ideal criteria, in ideal forms. My objective has always been to be able to hear my music performed immediately. This is why I have always written for specific musicians, for existing ensembles, with soloists I know. In some cases the ensemble has been formed first, and then the music to be performed created around it. I have never felt this to be a limitation, on the contrary, it is a stimulus to obtain something new each time, mixing instrumental sounds in the most daring and unconventional ways possible. Even today, when my writings intentionally aimed at a rediscovery of the traditional values of harmony and melody, I am always striving for unusual tone colorings, and that stylistic touch which imparts a different value to the musical undertaking. The proof of this is that my music, despite its close conformations to conventions, is still considered today not commercially viable by many record companies. (AC)