Franco Donatoni (1927-2000)
"Abyss", pour voix de femme, flûte basse et 10 instruments
Kammersymphonie pour 15 instruments, op. 18 "Souvenir"
"Puppenspiel III", pour flûte, flûte en sol, flûte piccolo et 14 interprètes
"Orts" souvenir n° 2, pour 14 instruments et récitant

Katarzyna Otczyk, mezzo-soprano
Mario Caroli, flûtes
Orchestre di Padova e del Veneto
Marco Angius, direction

The compositions on this CD belong to distinct periods of Franco Donatoni’s production and include the most significant extremes of his catalogue. In particular, Souvenir (1968) and Orts (or Souvenir n. 2, 1969) are twin works, which can be ascribed to the so-called negative period, while Abyss (1983) and Puppenspiel 3 (1994) are two different cases, linked to a phase of renewed confidence in artisanal creativeness, as well as a deep exploration of instrumental dramaturgy. In reality, to speak of artisan quality is doubtless reductive in regard to similar extraordinarily original and inventive sonorous devices. They are compositions generated by combinatory automatisms and processes of syntactic proliferation of interval structures, mixed and animated by a particular creative imagination. Perhaps the self-generative aspect of Donatoni’s compositions has been excessively placed in the centre of his musical research and his extraordinary constructive ability as a synonym of cold indifference of access codes, faced with an idiomatic and consistent style, with unpredictable but always recognisable results. The auto-analysis of the constructive and deconstructive procedures, which can be found in important writings like Questo, Antecedente X or Il sigaro di Armando, is one of the elements that are intertwined with Donatoni’s methodical rigour and his work as an artist, both personal and ineffable. Together with Franco Evangelisti and Aldo Clementi, he represents the most intransigent wing of anti-music, a trend that in the sixties was consciously opposed to “ the eclipse of sound “ in which the avant garde moved, between ruins of ruins.