Luciano Berio - Sinfonia · Ekphrasis (2005)

As one of the most celebrated works of the avant-garde, this new recording of Berio’s ambitious Sinfonia (1968) is very much the product of our time as it was back in the sixties when it made its appearance: it has "protest" and "social relevance" written all over the pages of its score, reflecting the collision of its materials―philosophical, literary, political, musical―in the welter of ideas that embodied the period's Zeitgeist. Being such a multi-layered collage, with eight amplified voices (originally performed by the Swingle Singers, here by the London Voices) weaving around a huge orchestra and reciting texts in multiple languages, the second movement is a tribute to Martin Luther King while the third intones the 1968 Paris uprising through the spoken quotes from Samuel Beckett's "The Unnamable". It's hard to imagine a definitive performance or recording of this curiously dense work. Yet each interpretation reveals new facets and hidden details, making Peter Eötvös's version a welcome addition to those already in the catalog from Pierre Boulez and Riccardo Chailly.

Luciano Berio (1925-2003)

Sinfonia (1968)
I [without indication]
II O King (Immobile e lontano)
III In ruhig fließender Bewegung - attacca:
IV [without indication]
V [without indication]

Ekphrasis (Continuo II) (1996)

Mark Williams, bass
Per Enoksson, violin
London Voices
Terry Edwards, chorus master
Göteborgs Symfoniker
The National Orchestra of Sweden
Peter Eötvös, conductor

Deutsche Grammophon: 00289 477 538-0