Luigi Nono: Como una ola; Epitaffio No. 1; Epitaffio No. 3

Werner Haseleu (Performer), Luigi Nono (Composer), Herbert Kegel (Conductor), Horst Neumann (Conductor), Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Leipzig Radio Symphony Chorus (Orchestra), Giuseppe LaLicata (Performer), Ursula Reinhardt-Kiss (Performer), Roswitha Trexler (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Werner Haseleu, Giuseppe LaLicata, Ursula Reinhardt-Kiss, Roswitha Trexler
• Orchestra: Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Radio Symphony Chorus
• Conductor: Herbert Kegel, Horst Neumann
• Composer: Luigi Nono
• Audio CD (September 20, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Berlin Classics
• ASIN: B0000035Q8
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #537,120 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Includes "Como Una Ola De Fuerza y Luz", "Epitaffio N.1: Espana en el Corazon" and "Epitaffio N.3: Romance de la Guardia Civil Espanola". Conducted by Herbert Kegel and Horst Neumann.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Disc shows transition between Nono's early and late styles., December 21, 1998

By 

Karl Henzy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Luigi Nono: Como una ola; Epitaffio No. 1; Epitaffio No. 3 (Audio CD)

Memento (Epitafio No.3) is a good example of Nono's early style, based on Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra, with shouting chorus and a political text. Como una etc., composed in 1972, is rooted in this kind of music but also shows the transition into late Nono, full of erie, static sound, a sort of white on white effect. Dedicated to Luciano Cruz, a Chilean revolutionary and martyr, the work's title means "Like a wave of strength and light." Nono's musical interpretation of strength here consists in rumbling percussion and a piano smoldering away in its lower registers, while light becomes the electronically produced "space music" which the more violent music periodically gives way to, as if to a vision of another, more spiritual realm. Como una ola de fuerza y luz is certainly one of Nono's most powerful works, and may be one of the masterpieces of the century.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reconsidering Nono, July 29, 2002

By 

Christopher Forbes "weirdears" (Brooklyn,, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Luigi Nono: Como una ola; Epitaffio No. 1; Epitaffio No. 3 (Audio CD)

I have of course known of Luigi Nono for most of my life. His music was discussed in every book on twentieth century music to be written since the 60's. And yet I'm ashamed to say that I had never heard anything by Nono until I bought this CD recently. I didn't know what I'd been missing. Nono is far from a dessicated total serialist. Rather his music is passionate and revolutionary. And perhaps even a bit spiritual...though probably it's a Marxist spirituality.

como una ola de fuerza y luz is the monumental work on this disc. Scored for orchestra, tape and soprano soloist, the work is a sonic tour de force. It was written to morn the death of Luciano Cruz, a Chilean revolutionary whom Nono had befriended. The sonic world of the piece is based on recurrent low clusters in the orchestra, and a musique concrete tape based on distorted piano and human voices. The work is tragic and haunting.

The other works on this CD are from the 1950's, when Nono was first making his reputation. They are settings of Neruda and Lorca and meant as an epitaph to Lorca, murdered by Franco's followers during the Spainish Civil War. The works are uncompromising, and yet there is a profound lyricism in the music. This becomes most evident at the end of the Third Epitaffio as the music becomes a straightforward tonal version of a Spanish Civil War anthemn. The effect is very moving.

Performances are exemplary on this CD. Ursula Reinhardt-Kiss sings the monumentally difficult lines of como with real precision. And Roswitha Trexler and Werner Haseleu do a wonderful job on the equally difficult lines of the Epitaffio.

This CD has whetted my appetite for more music of this wonderful composer. He is vastly underrated.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars like a wave of strength and light!, July 11, 2001

By 

R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Luigi Nono: Como una ola; Epitaffio No. 1; Epitaffio No. 3 (Audio CD)

"como una ola de fuerza y luz" was written in 1971/1972 to commemorate the Chilean revolutionary, Luciano Cruz, of the MIR (Revolutionary Leftist Movement). This 30-minute piece, recorded in 1976 in Leipzig, is for soprano, piano and orchestra, accompanied by a tape recording of transformed piano sounds and human voices. The electronics are therefore simple, but powerfully effective, used at the end to evoke the continuing presence of the revolutionary spirit, and the utopian prospect. As noted, "como una ola" marked a transition toward Nono's more contemplative late (1980s) style. The two shorter works included here (written in 1952/3, recorded in 1977) are less innovative musically, but form a thematic whole, as they commemorate the (losing) democratic forces of the Spanish Civil War (set to verse from Garcia-Lorca and Neruda). From the dictators Franco and Pinochet, to such current anti-democratic forces as the World Trade Organization, the struggle continues...