Ronchetti: Action Music Pieces

Rossi, Michele Marco; Ensemble InterContemporain; Dierstein, Christian; Orchestra della Toscana; Ronchetti, Lucia; Pfaff, Luca; Pintscher, Matthias

Ronchetti: action music pieces is the name of the new album by Italian composer Lucia Ronchetti. The first work, ‘Le palais du silence,’ refers to an unrealized ballet project of Claude Debussy. Ronchetti refers to the attempts of Debussy to transfer “silent landscapes“ into sound. As part of this process his music can be heard on numerous occasions thoughout this piece. In ‘Helicopters and butterflies’ the composer refers to Dostoyevsky´s novel “The Gambler.” It is a “mikro-musictheater-project“ for a solo percussionist, who finds himself in a lonely hotel room with over 80 musical items, and starts telling a musical story about losing and winning. The piece ‘Forward and downward, turning neither to the left nor to the right’ is an “instrumental opera“ for solo cello where mythological stories are told, e.g. Theseus, who enters the Labyrinth of Knossos and tries to escape with the help of a thread, given to him by his beloved Ariadne. In ‘Lacus timoris, lake of fear’ the solo-percussionist gazes at the kettledrum skins with his ears closely above them, same as Narzissus gazes at his reflection in the lake. Shortly before the end of the piece, the percussionist sings Handels famous aria Lascia ch´io pianga into the kettledrum skins at a barely audible volume. ‘Rumori da monumenti’ for chamber ensemble and voice are “postcards” from a far-distant world. They are sensual musical impressions from the South-African metropolis Johannesburg where the recorded noises and the short texts by the South-African author are building a new sound level.

Price: $30.98