Cantatas
A lesson of the shadows in the 21st century by Stefano Gervasoni, enigmatic texts by Leonardo da Vinci heard by Beat Furrer, the whispers and murmurs guarded and composed by Kaija Saariaho: when voices form a nighttime alliance with electronics.
Stefano Gervasoni's creation, a meditation and variations on the Spanish poetry of José Ángel Valente, is linked to the Leçons de ténèbres, a musical genre dear to Couperin and 17th-century France. The electronic processing makes it possible to add to the real choir, a second choir, accompanist, responsorium, or real virtual interlocutor. Beat Furrer's four Enigma play from the space of the concert hall, and are based on the visionary texts of Leonardo da Vinci, which describe everyday events or natural phenomena. The concert ends with the breath and whispers of Nuits, adieu de Kaija Saariaho, based on excerpts from Jacques Roubaud (Échanges de la lumière) and a fragment of Balzac's Séraphîta.
SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart
Yuval Weinberg conductor
Thomas Goepfer, Benoit Meudic IRCAM computer music design
Beat Furrer Enigma I, II, III, IV — French Premiere
Kaija Saariaho Nuits, adieux
Stefano Gervasoni De Tinieblas, assistance in writing an original new musical work from the Ministry of Culture, commissioned by IRCAM-Centre Pompidou — Premiere 2021
