Luciano Berio R.I.P.

[lazarus]

Composer Luciano Berio Is Dead at 77
Associated Press - 27 May 2003

ROME (AP) - Luciano Berio, 77, considered Italy's foremost music composer of the second half of the 20th century and an enthusiastic explorer of the creative potential of electronic technology in music, died Tuesday in a Rome hospital.

Lalla Brau, a spokeswoman for the National Academy of St. Cecilia in Rome, which Berio chaired, said the composer was admitted to Gemelli Polyclinic hospital on Monday. He had recently been treated in another hospital for a spinal problem, but Brau said she didn't know the cause of death.

Berio, who also conducted many of the major orchestras in Europe, the United States, Israel and Japan, and arranged music, was particularly noted for innovations in electronic music, and he taught courses on electronic music at Columbia University in New York.

He had been chairman and superintendent of St. Cecilia, Rome's prestigious venue for classical music performances, since September 2000.

"With the passing of Luciano Berio, we have lost one of the most representative protagonists of avant-garde music on the international level," said Italy's minister of culture, Giuliano Urbani.

Opera star Luciano Pavarotti said Berio was a "great artist who knew how to cross the sometimes too narrow barriers between musical genres, showing that when there is art and love for music, labels don't matter anymore."

When, in 1990, Berio was awarded, along with violinist Yehudi Menuhin, a Wolf Prize for the arts, he was hailed by the selection committee as "one of the greatest composers of our generation whose new ideas, in an age of devaluation of human values, help to unify nations, cultures and generations."

Born in a town on Italy's northwest Ligurian coast on Oct. 24, 1925, Berio grew up in family of musicians, first studying music with his father and grandfather.

He was a co-founder of the Musical Phonology Studio at RAI state television in Milan in 1955, at a time of electronic acoustical exploration.

Among his principal musical works for theater are Passaggio, and two compositions done in collaboration with Italo Calvino, the late Italian author, La Vera Storia and Un re in ascolto.

When Bologna University gave him an honorary degree a few years ago, Berio spoke about his philosophy of music.

"We can describe it like a building whose architect is society and whose designer is history, but whose blueprint is never given because its rooms are open and changing," the composer said.

Berio was in the news last month about Myung-Whun Chung's decision not to renew his contract at principal conductor at St. Cecilia when his contract runs out in 2005.

News reports said that maestro Chung had a tense relationship with Berio. The orchestra, commenting on Chung's decision, said that Berio was "deeply grateful" for the conductor's "excellent" work.

Other top posts for Berio included director of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, a Florence musical festival with a popular international following. Florence made him an honorary citizen.

Survivors include Berio's wife, Talia, with whom he composed Cronaca del Luogo in 1999.

A wake was scheduled for Thursday at St. Cecilia's headquarters. A funeral was being planned for Friday in Radicondoli, the Tuscan town near Siena where Berio lived.

[Sergio Zamora]

Sorry to hear this. RIP.


Without meaning to speak ill of the dead, was he really considered "Italy's foremost music composer of the second half of the 20th century"? I would imagine that he'd at least be head-to-head with Morricone or Nono.

[ryans]

this is sad to hear... Berio was a great composer.

[LeMo]

A very great musician. Very sad.

He was just two years older than Boulez & Stockhausen.

I like his multi compositions called "Sequenza" & "Chemins", who was not so far, sometimes, from jazz, but most of all, what I prefer are his three violin "concerto": "Voci", "Requies" and "Corale" for whom he uses italian folk music and lullabies.

The best versions I know of this three works are reunited on one disc and conducted by Berio in person :

- "Berio: Voci, Requies, Corale - London Sinfonietta - Berio/ Chiarappa/ Bennici" (RCA RD87898)

If he is head to head with Nono (and, BTW, with Scelsi, Donatoni and Maderna who is, always, the most forgotten of all the great italian composers of the second half of the last century - is it because he died so long ago?), I don't see Morricone in the same league, IMO. Nino Rota, maybe. But Morricone?

[lazarus]

The collaborations with his former wife, the great Cathy Berberian are also worth checking out. For example "Visage" (for magnetic tape, based on the voice of C.B.),"Recital I for Cathy" and "Folk Songs".

Other favorites of mine are "Différences" (for five instruments and magnetic tape) and the two compositions for voices and orchestra "Sinfonia" and "Laborintus 2".

[Sergio Zamora]

Well, maybe not Morricone, but I do think with Nono, and as you mention Scelsi. I'm not at all familiar with Maderna.

But I do dig Morricone a lot, although probably more for the improvisation collaboration in Nuova Consonanza.

In any case, Berio was great.

[walto]

This is very sad. I love a bunch of his works.

FWIW, I think I might add Bussotti to LeMo's list of great modern Italian composers.

[LeMo]

Yes, Morricone is a man who has many faces and I like him & his trumpet in Nuova Consonanza.
He is really a great improvisator, allrigth.
As a composer, he has a style who fits pretty well the Sergio Leone's movie. But, for the rest, well, I'm not sure.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

"Visage" was among the first avant-garde classical pieces I heard, and it remains one of my favorites. I hear a lot of Cathy Berbarian in some of jazz's wordless vocalizers of today, most especially Lauren Newton, and nowhere more clearly than in her recent and superb 'Out of Sound' album. I've also enjoyed Berio's 'Homage to Jame Joyce' and 'Folk Songs'; but for me "Visage" is a real masterpiece. R.I.P.