Luciano Berio - Transformation

Sinfonieorchester Basel

Released on 22/11/2019 by Sony Classical - Sony Music
Main artists: Sinfonieorchester Basel
Genre: Classical

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This Berio album is like a little museum dedicated to the Italian composer. Famous for his experiments with musical form which involved working quotations into his pieces, this album, Transformation, sees Berio in the role of arranger. The programme is a series of works arranged for orchestra: a motley collection that runs from Bach to the Beatles, via Falla, Boccherini, Mahler, and Brahms. In it, we hear Berio's affinity for the unfinished, and we also see his love for song, whether the singing is being done by the clarinette (wonderful autumnal colours from Daniel Ottensamer), a baritone (Benjamin Appl) or a soprano (Sophia Burgos).
The juxtaposition of the works forms a connecting thread. Is it an echo of the composer's clever patchwork style of writing? In the end it's one of Bach's more fascinating scores that dominates the record. We are taken from one sonic world to the other, each re-invented in turn, expanded but not denatured. We trek across the Spain of Falla and Boccherini: we dive into Brahms and Mahler, two composers that Berio would admire for their science and orchestral sounds, and more specifically the former's clarinet sonata – which became a chamber sinfonia concertante – and the latter's youthful Lieder. Finally, we travel through time thanks to a whip-smart, virtuoso exercise in style: the arrangement of three Beatles songs in the baroque style (although the second version of Michelle tends towards a sometimes-atonal romanticism), all a marvellous fit for the outrageous Cathy Berberian, whose Beatles performances were always free and fantastical.
In the pit, the Basel symphonic orchestra with Ivor Bolton conducting. What could be a more natural choice for an artist whose archives are held by the Sacher Foundation? © Elsa Siffert/Qobuz

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Luciano Berio - Transformation

Sinfonieorchester Basel

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Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080: Contrapunctus XIX (Arr. for Orchestra by Luciano Berio)

00:09:20

Ivor Bolton, Conductor - Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer - Andreas Werner, Engineer - Luciano Berio, Adapter - Sinfonieorchester Basel, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Jakob Händel, Recording Engineer

(P) 2019 Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH

7 Canciones populares Españolas (Manuel de Falla)

I. El paño moruno (Arr. for Soprano and Orchestra by Luciano Berio)