Noam Sheriff

Luciano Berio is the culmination of a long and magnificent tradition in Italy which understood that the human voice lies at the very bottom of musical experience. Italian music has given the world new insight into polyphony and the life work of Luciano Berio is the very essence of this heritage independent of the various techniques. It would be summed up in a single beautiful sentence which is given in the Book of Psalms, chapter 19, number 3 «There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard» which means that things exist only if we express them with the voice (I know that no translation can do justice to the heavenly beauty of this sentence as phrased in the original Hebrew language). In this respect Berio's music will always be to me an essential part of the art of music.

Noam Sheriff