Iannis Xenakis' Charisma(1971), which opens the concert, is a short but very intense duo for clarinet and cello, and is built from combinations of extended sounds from both the clarinet and the cello. Effects like grinding noises and multi-phonics are complemented by sudden shifts of register and dynamics. The work contains no melodies in the conventional sense, but dramatic gestures and the composer's acute sense of timing make this work a real show-stopper. The piece of Salvatore Sciarrino Melencolia I presents a dialogue between cello and piano, in which the wise use of pauses masterfully express the transience of life and the waiting sense. This rarefied atmosphere then introduces the hypnotic cello glissando. The singularity is that the piano part traces the American song Stardust, created in 1929 by Mitchell Parish.
A part of the concert is dedicated to Gacinto Scelsi, often renowned as one of the most innovative authors of the 20^th Century: the pieces Ko-Lho for flute and clarinet, and Riti: i funerali di Carlo Magno for cello and percussion shows the characteristics of a contentious author, who is able to obtain excellent phonic effects, demonstrating his ability with sounds. The fusion of different timbres create beats which make the songs constantly modern. Scelsi is famous for the brief pauses around the notes that evoke the exoticism of his beloved oriental world. The piece by Aldo Clementi, Dedica, is an example of a serial structure where the material is taken from the tonal tradition, while the elaboration creates a complex musical fabric that goes towards the silence. The Ensemble degli Intrigati commissioned a brand new opera to the young Florentine composer Matteo Belli, who is currently pursuing his PhD in the United States. It is called Lei, piangente, a composition created for the six elements formation that also uses live electric sounds. The music pages are inspired by The Weeping Woman painting by Pablo Picasso, exhibited at London’s Tate Modern. The pages of Alessandro Solbiati, recently awarded the Abbiati prize, conclude the programme. Flos is a work from 2007 in which music is organic: here there are the pulses of the life that surrounds the artist, who admires it, amazed.