Alessandro Berio

I never thought of my grandfather as a mystical or religious person, although his music always seemed divinely inspired to me. I remember sitting with him one morning at Il Colombaio, his Radicondoli home overlooking the Tuscan hills. I was a curious teenager, fascinated by his larger-than-life personality. He was reading a newspaper, smoking a cigar, while taking a short break from his composing. I asked him what I felt was an obvious question: Why do you write music? He looked at me and without hesitating, he replied, «I have to, it's what my spirit tells me.»

Alessandro Berio