Bruno Maderna was one of the most extraordinary Italian composers of his generation. That his reputation as a composer has, since his untimely death, taken a back seat to his activities as a jet-setting conductor is a shame, compounded by competition from two significant colleagues who long survived him -- Luigi Nono and
Luciano Berio. With the heirs of Luigi Dallapiccola's mantle now just a memory, it is an excellent time to revisit the case of
Maderna, whose music is of such quality that its stock inevitably rises upon revival.
Maderna: Don Perlimpin -- Serenata per un Satellite features two key
Maderna works as performed by the Italian group Contempoartensemble Ceccanti, an ensemble led by Mauro Ceccanti and based out of the Luigi Pecci Centre for Contemporary Art in Prato. Although the membership of the ensemble varies as called for by the requirements of a given piece, Ceccanti is clearly an expert performer of this kind of material.
Maderna's Don Perlimpin (1962) is a complex adaptation for radio of a play by Federico García Lorca. In it, a flute "plays" the part of the title character as other voices interact with him in this weird, surrealist creation, and a small ensemble underscores the whole, sometimes breaking out into quirky nightclub jazz worthy of The Twilight Zone. Overall, Don Perlimpin is a superlative and groundbreaking work, but be prepared to read, as the music is not wall-to-wall continuous and there are some stretches of spoken dialogue in Italian. Thankfully, Arts supplies an Italian-English libretto, and it is particularly noteworthy how well the Italian translation retains the rugged and emotional verve of García Lorca's Spanish original.
In Europe,
Maderna's 1969 Serenata per un Satellite is threatening to become a repertory piece, so often is it heard in concerts. In listening to the work on the excellent Arts disc Maderna: Don Perlimpin -- Serenata per un Satellite it is easy to see why; it sounds like it is fun to play, it is not overtly harsh, and represents the "Space Age" milieu from whence it comes to a "T" -- the piece quite literally "lifts off."
For those not scared off in a general way by
Maderna's experimentalism, Maderna: Don Perlimpin -- Serenata per un Satellite goes beyond the call in making these uncommon works accessible and in breathing life into them once again.