Recital for Cathy (author's note)

Recital for Cathy
for mezzosoprano and seventeen instruments (1972)

The first idea of Recital for Cathy goes back to 1966. Completed in 1972, Recital is not only a tribute to the singer that - probably more than anybody else - contributed to a global, non-specialist approach to contemporary vocal music, but also a commentary on the more or less obvious ingredients of the “recital” situation.
From a musical and dramatic point of view Recital is made up of very heterogeneous elements developed as autonomous entities. Most of the times they are not organically structured but simply juxtaposed. There is the singer’s inner dialogue, sung and spoken (the spoken text is mine, with occasional references to texts by Andrea Moretti and Edoardo Sanguineti), and there are sections to be sung, often built from fragments of the classical repertory that can be interchanged with other fragments having an equivalent harmonic structure. Just one of these sections is a real “concert-piece”, and is performed as such: Avendo gran disio for voice and piano, composed in 1948 on a lyric by Jacopo da Lentini. There are also sections for piano forming a completely autonomous whole, and an instrumental development entrusted to a small orchestra. It is up to the orchestra to underline the differences among the various elements, to grasp the occasional homogeneity reached by the various levels, and to present its autonomous vision of the musical and theatrical “iconography” of the piece.
The differences, and sometimes the indifference among the various musical levels also means literally a difference of tempo: the soloist is autonomous and responsible for her tempo, the chronometer controls the tempo of the two pianos, and the conductor is responsible for the tempo of the small orchestra.

Luciano Berio

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