Bruno Maderna | quadrivium | aura | biogramma | Giuseppe Sinopoli (1980)

In the 1950s and '60s composer-conductor-teacher Bruno Maderna (1920-1973) directed the chamber ensemble in Darmstadt, the leading international centre for contemporary music, and became one of the first Italians to produce electronic works. But it was not in technical progress that he saw music's future. Like his contemporaries, he also adopted 12-tone writing in the 1950s, yet Maderna remained an undogmatic and independent composer to the end of his life: "The worst thing in the world is consistency," he once said; "I hate to be consistent, because it's deadly."
This fascinating collection illuminates a number of different facets of Maderna's extremely varied output. The spatial conception of Quadrivium (meaning "crossroads" and alluding to the number 4; 1969), for four percussionists and four orchestral groups, clearly relates to a venerable tradition in Maderna's native Venice: the polychoral style of the 17th century. In Aura (1972) 54 strings are divided into six quite differently constituted ensembles, while the brass, also used in block fashion, punctuate Maderna's sensuous, neo-impressionistic sound world. Using an enormous orchestra with the subtlety of chamber music, he seems to be paying tribute to Alban Berg's Chamber Concerto, and even quotes from it here. Biogramma (1972), for large orchestra, displays the Italianate side of Maderna's musical personality, his subtle feeling for lyrical expression. These path-breaking recordings date from early in the career of Maderna's younger colleague and fellow Venetian, Giuseppe Sinopoli, when he was still primarily renowned as a composer conducting modern music - a new Bruno Maderna.

from the CD booklet

Unfortunately both this giants died around the same age:
- Maderna at age 53: his celebrity in America was so short-lived that by 2004 Maderna's name was largely forgotten there, but not so in Europe, where he is yet regarded as one of the giants of postwar modernism.
- Sinopoli died in Berlin, Germany at age 54, survived by his wife Silvia and two sons. The Giuseppe Sinopoli Taormina Festival does not only celebrate the man as a musician and as a conductor but also as a composer, a doctor, an archaeologist and intellectual.

Maderna - Quadrivium, Aura, Biogramma (20 tracks) 67:14

Quadrivium, per 4 percussioni e 4 gruppi orchestrali (1969) (8 tracks, 36:40)
01 Quadrivium: I 66ca
02 Quadrivium: II 60ca
03 Quadrivium: III 100ca
04 Quadrivium: IV Lento 48-52ca
05 Quadrivium: V 72-80ca
06 Quadrivium: VI 92-100ca
07 Quadrivium: VII 126-132ca
08 Quadrivium: VIII End

Aura, per orchestra (1972) (7 tracks, 16:32)
09 Aura: I 72ca
10 Aura: II 126-132ca
11 Aura: III 120ca
12 Aura: IV 66ca
13 Aura: V 120ca
14 Aura: VI 84ca
15 Aura: VII Tempo generale da 42 a 84ca Tempo generale

Biogramma, per grande orchestra (1972) (5 tracks, 14:02)
16 Biogramma: I Section A 52ca
17 Biogramma: II Section A 60ca
18 Biogramma: III Section B 42ca
19 Biogramma: IV Section B-60ca
20 Biogramma: V Section C

DG 20/21 00289 477 5383 (1980)

Compressed APE + cue (for wav); booklet + back + cover
Rar files through tinyurl.com: tiny parts at 4wauw4 - 47xnht - 3gjg7j (3% recovery)

Enjoy

ps. This is my third upload, in gratitude to so many downloads gifted by all the generous and clever lovers of the music of our time.
I hope to add afterwards more music that perhaps you have not had the occasion to listen.