Ensemble intercontemporain

Lucerne Festival
Lucerne
Switzerland
http://e.lucernefestival.ch

Ensemble intercontemporain
IRCAM – Centre Pompidou computer music design
Matthias Pintscher conductor

How does space become sound? That’s the question composer-in-residence Olga Neuwirth investigates in her large ensemble work Le Encantadas, which she completed last year – and which superimposes two entirely different island worlds. On the one hand these involve the Galapagos, the “enchanted islands” as Herman Melville describes them in his series of sketches The Encantadas depicting an antediluvian wasteland of lava rock populated only by prehistoric reptiles. On the other hand it involves the lagoon city of Venice, where Neuwirth has lived for several years. More precisely: the Venetian Church of San Lorenzo, where she attended the 1984 world premiere of Luigi Nono’s Prometeo and whose specific acoustics (including its unique reverberation) she has reconstructed using electronic means. “The listener is led over the course of 70 minutes through a labyrinth of real and fictitious outdoor spaces, interiors, varied (sonic-)island worlds, and acoustic and manipulated phenomena,” says Neuwirth of her “fictional space-time journey.”


Olga Neuwirth : Le Encantadas o le avventure nel mare delle meraviglie