MUSIC AND POETRY

The works to be found on this CD are the result of several jojful collaborations between the poet, Annalisa Comes, and the composer, Luigi Negretti Lanner. Already having been performed with great success at various concerts and cultural festivals, the three works distinguish themselves in both subject matter and the differing expressive climates that pervade them. "Dal nuovo mondo" ("From the new world"), inspired by the tragic events of the tsunami, invite the listener to contemplate wider issues such as the relationship between the rich and poor countries of the world, and what effect the socio-economic balance, at both national and international level, has upon the daily life of the popolation and the individual. A very different atmosphere prevails in "Un'aria dalla Carmen" ("An aria from Carmen"), a piece devoid of any references to the dilemmas of current events, which offers an original synthesis of the well-know tale by Merimée. The short work is an interesting juxstaposition between the text and the composer's treatment of it. If we consider his desire to comply with the character of the piece, we cannot but notice that in the two parts of the slowest movement (the same aria that is repeated for two verses) the real interest lies in the contradiction revealed between the apparently resolute personality of Carmen and the way in which she express herself musically. She pronounces phrases markedly, at times even contemptuously, yet her song reveals an intimate bewilderment that is impossible to hide with words, so much so that in the end she gives up (the second time the aria finishes at a standstill, as it were, on the letter "n") . With the third piece we return to the modern world. The setting is a hypothetical news bullettin, from which the poet extrapolates a banal crime incident, using it as a pretext to lead an investigation into a number of socio-cultural elements that, in our everyday lives, accompany the phenomonon of war, always described and thought of as something from afar, and which we too often refuse to do anything about. Musically, the piece features acoustic instruments with electronic embellishments.

Traduction by James Butterfield