ROSENFINGER
VIRTUAL CONCERT n. 4
POETRY
AND HARP - Five Chamber Works by Fabio Grasso
The works included in this programme have been
composed by Fabio Grasso for the seasons of Agimus Venezia, and performed by the members of the ensembles
created around this Association, like Plurimo Ensemble and InContinuum Ensemble, among which the Venetian harpist Alessandra Trentin and, for the third piece, one of her young
promising students. Each piece draws its inspiration from a poetic source,
according to the literary themes chosen as references by the concert series.
1. Tháleia - Variations
on a garden
Homage to Emily Dickinson. Flute, Harp, Piano. 2011
2.
Barcarolle du ręve vespéral
Homage to Stéphane Mallarmé. Harp with Piano ad libitum.
2016
Homage to Friedrich Hölderlin.
Clarinet and Harp. 2017
Homage to Bruno Maderna.
Flute, Harp, Piano, 2010
Homage to George Gordon Byron. Flute, Harp. 2013
1. Tháleia - for flute, harp, piano - 2011
Tháleia (Greek word for
"flowering") consists of 9 short pieces. Each of them is titled with
a name of a flower or a tree of Emily Dickinson's garden, an extremely
important source of inspiration for the American poet.
The work is conceived as a walk through a garden, with
fixed and free routes: the succession of the pieces is partially preordained by
the composer, partially determinable by the performers.
The structures of the pieces are somehow related to
the features of the flowers. The descriptive and psychological context of their
evocations in Dickinson's poems can sometimes affect the compositional writing. Otherwise, the physical form of a
flower can be transformed into a musical architetcure:
for example, the symmetric layout of the Rose and the semantic allusion to the
gravitation suggested by the term Aster inspire a piece (n. 5) built on a note
that acts as centre of symmetry, while all other sounds circulate around it, at
specular distances.
Finally, the chordal
sequences of the last piece, dedicated to the Lotus, conceal some fragments
drawn from the Heine-Lieder by Schumann and
Mendelssohn that mention the "Lotosblume".
Performance:
Dec-03-2011, Venezia, Sale Apollinee del Teatro La Fenice
Cecilia Vendrasco, flute; Alessandra Trentin,
harp; Fabio Grasso, piano
2. Barcarolle du ręve vespéral - for harp with piano ad libitum
- 2016
In S. Mallarmé's Sonnet en yx, that
inspires this piece, the expressiveness of the symbolist images is often
strictly connected with the pure sound of the words. The heart of the
conceptual framework of the sonnet, the "sonorous inanity" of the
"Néant" - that is the Nothingness already
explored by Baudelaire - finds a powerful representation in a non-existent
word, "Ptyx", mere phonetic abstraction,
ghostlike symbpl of negation and absence.
A ghostly presence, that of the piano, characterizes
this work, which can be considered as a solo harp piece with optional piano
accompaniment.
The 2 parts of the macrostructure (A || B) are in
their turn divided into 2 subsections (A1 A2 || B1 B2).
The possible interventions of the piano appear in the
sections A2 and B2, as oneiric counterpoints from the
distance to the harp line, or emanations from its most tensive
passages, like during the caesura between A2 and B1.
Whether these piano figures are really performed or
only evoked by the signs of the score in the mind of the harpist, they
innervate the harp resonances with a sort of meta-physical sound, as in the
sonnet fire, gold and stars seem to reflect the extreme gleams upon a
non-reality, sinking into emptiness and oblivion.
Performance:
Nov-19-2016, Venezia, Sale Apollinee del Teatro La Fenice
Alessandra
Trentin, harp; Fabio
Grasso, piano
3. Wie Zephirstöne - for clarinet and harp -
2017
The title ("Like Zephyrus's sounds") is a
fragment of a verse from Diotima, probably the most famous poem written
by Friedrich Hölderlin, in which he recollects the
appearance of the woman, concealed under the ancient Greek name, who impressed
a so deep trace in his life, representing a source of new light and a spring
breath of hope.
One can imagine that in this pieces the instruments
play the two ideal roles emerging from the verses: the poet's voice (assigned
to the clarinet) and the spirit of Diotima (evoked by
the harp).
The structure is conceived according to a free
interpretative route of the poem, and can be described in the following way:
first invocation (clarinet) - first answer (harp) -
phases of interaction (convergent and divergent)
second short and resigned invocation (clarinet) -
final far answer (harp), like from a superior, sublimed, perennial entity.
Performance:
Oct-28-2017, Venezia, Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi
Enrico Palatini
(born 2000), clarinet: Caterina Artuso
(born 2001), harp
4. Recondita aulodia - for flute, harp, and piano -
2010
This is the only work of this programme not directly
connected with a specific poem.
However, the term "aulodia",
so important in the production of Bruno Maderna, the
great Venetian composer to whom this piece does homage, refers to the ancient
Greek poetry supposedly associated with the wind instrument called aulos (something similar to a flute and/or to an oboe).
The main intent of the piece is to recreate "aulodic" phrases, giving them to "non-aulodic" instruments, the polyphonic harp and piano:
so they weave a dialogue of reminiscences with duty arranged monodic lines. Only in the last section the voice of the
flute, till here only evoked, can materialize in the final cadenza that acts as
guide for the other instruments. Yet even here - as happens in the Barcarolle for the piano - this presence
is optional: if the flute is absent, nevertheless its line will be followed by
the pianist and the harpist, as a reference not heard but only thought.
Performance:
Nov-19-2010, Venezia, Aula Magna dell'Ateneo Veneto
Alessandra
Trentin, harp; Alessandro
Segreto, piano; Fulvio Fiorio, flute
5. ...hear thee once... - for flute and harp - 2013
"Hear thee once" is one of the last
invocations that in Byron's Manfred the protagonist of the drama addresses to Astarte, mysterious female character appearing like a
ghost: she announces Manfred's imminent death, as release from his sufferings,
answering to his imploration of forgiveness.
Like in Wie Zephirstöne, the wind instrument (here a flute) and the
harp embody the dialectic relation between an invoking man (in this case
Manfred as clear image of the poet himself) and the spirit of a woman, raised
to an higher, almost transcendent and anyway unreachable dimension.
Tha phrasing of the piece
is often based on ternary schemes, aiming to mirror the features of this
crucial passage of the drama, in which Byron shows a certain predilection for
the three-limbed periods.
The concert of the first performance was enriched by
the reading of new poems freely inspired by the figure of Astarte,
written by the Italian poet Monica Pavani. In this
video the musical performance is preceded by some verses recited by the author
herself; the structure of this excerpt influenced in some way the general
formal route of the piece.
Performance:
Nov-12-2013, Venezia, Sale Apollinee del Teatro La Fenice
Cecilia Vendrasco, flute; Alessandra Trentin,
harp