Duetti per due violini (author's note)

Duetti
for two violins (1979-1983)

1. BELA (Bartók) November 10, 1979, Radicondoli
2. SHLOMIT (Almog) November 10, 1979, Radicondoli
3. YOSSI (Pecker) November 10, 1979, Radicondoli
4. RODION (Schedrin) November 14, 1979, Stockholm
5. MAJA (Pliseckaja) November 15, 1979, Stockholm
6. BRUNO (Maderna) November 15, 1979, Stockholm
7. CAMILLA (Adami) December 7, 1979, Paris
8. PEPPINO (Di Giugno) December 7, 1979, Paris
9. MARCELLO (Panni) December 13, 1979, Radicondoli
10. GIORGIO FEDERICO (Ghedini) December 13, 1979, Radicondoli
11. VALERIO (Adami) December 18, 1979, Radicondoli
12. DANIELA (Rabinovich) December 18, 1979, Radicondoli
13. JEANNE (Panni) April 27, 1980, Paris
14. PIERRE (Boulez) April 28, 1980, Paris
15. TATJANA (Globokar) April 28, 1980, Paris
16. RIVI (Pecker) May 29, 1980, Radicondoli
17. LEONARDO (Pinzauti) May 29, 1980, Radicondoli
18. PIERO (Farulli) June 8, 1980, Tel Aviv
19. ANNIE (Neuburger) November 10, 1980, Radicondoli
20. EDOARDO (Sanguineti) June 27, 1981, Radicondoli
21. FIAMMA (Nicolodi) June 28, 1981, Radicondoli
22. VINKO (Globokar) June 28, 1981, Radicondoli
23. FRANCO (Gulli) June 29, 1981, Radicondoli
24. ALDO (Bennici) June 29, 1981, Radicondoli
25. CARLO (Chiarappa) June 30, 1981, Radicondoli
26. HENRI (Pousseur) June 30, 1981, Radicondoli
27. ALFREDO (Fiorenzani) August 12, 1981, Radicondoli
28. IGOR (Stravinsky) August 12, 1981, Radicondoli
29. ALFRED (Schlee) November 3, 1981, Florence
30. MASSIMO (Mila) March 27, 1982, Radicondoli
31. MAURICIO (Kagel) March 27, 1982, Radicondoli
32. MAURICE (Fleuret) May 2, 1982, Tel Aviv
33. LORIN (Maazel) March 5, 1983, Radicondoli
34. LELE (D’Amico) March 8, 1983, Rome

Duetti
for two violins (1979-1983)

It can happen that a violinist friend tells a composer, one night, that, other than those of Bartók, there are not enough violin duets today. And it can happen that the composer immediately sets himself to writing duets that night until dawn… and then more duets in moments of leisure, in different cities and hotels, between rehearsals, travelling, thinking of somebody, when looking for a present... This is what happened to me and I am grateful to that nocturnal violinist whose name is given to one of these Duetti.
Thus behind every duet there are personal reasons and situations: with BRUNO (Maderna), for instance, there is the memory of “functional” music which we often composed together in the fifties; MAJA (Pliseckaja) is the transformation of a Russian song, whereas ALDO (Bennici) is a real Sicilian song; PIERRE (Boulez) was written for a farewell evening: it develops from a small cell of his ...Explosante fixe...; GIORGIO FEDERICO (Ghedini) is in memory of my years at the Conservatory in Milan. And so on... These Duetti are for me what the vers de circonstance were for Mallarmé: that is, they are not necessarily based on deep musical motivations, but rather connected by the fragile thread of daily occasions. Nevertheless, in these duets there is also a pedagogical objective. Very often, as can be heard, one of the two parts is easier and focuses on specific technical problems, on different expressive characters and even on violin stereotypes, so that a young violinist can contribute, at times, even to a relatively complex musical situation from a very simple angle - the playing of a D major scale, for instance.
I would like to write a kaleidoscope made up of about a hundred of Duetti. Every group of thirty-three will be commented upon by a “concert” duet, developing in an ampler perspective the different circumstances of this private folklore of mine.

Luciano Berio

Note d'autore: informazioni generali | Author's note: general info