Luciano Berio
Sequenza VIII
Duration: 15'
Dedication: a Carlo Chiarappa
Instrumentation details:
violin
Berio - Sequenza VIII for violin
Audio preview
Work introduction
“The Sequenza VIII for violin solo by Luciano Berio has been one of my favourite works ever since I got to know for a DVD production in Paris in 2004. I play the work as often as the opportunity arises.
The piece circles around the note A, which stands in a permanent conflict with its neighbour B, but always in a brave, modified, varied and sequenced sense. The note spins onwards through all states of existence over 10 large UE pages, before landing on a 10-second-long double stopped A–B: ten seconds of A–B which are eternity.
But the dissonance and resistance have lost their monstrosity by then, and the A–B combination sounds almost like resolution and closure. The initially impenetrable fundamental problem transforms itself over 10 minutes of performance (and life) into its own resolution. Great art.”
Carolin Widmann