Record of the day: Bruno Maderna, “Oboe Concertos”

Bruno Maderna, “Oboe Concertos” (Cd Col Legno WWE 20037)

Together with Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna was the greatest Italian composer of his generation. His fame as a conductor overshadowed his achievements as a composer for many years, but after his untimely death (in 1973 shortly after completing the “Third Oboe Concerto”) the entire musical world began to notice the treasures that Maderna had scattered along his artistic path.

The main characteristic of Maderna’s music is the absolute tension towards the melos, the singability, even within a highly avant-garde language (don’t expect neo-Puccinian regurgitations or nostalgia) yet extraordinarily communicative; a couple of careful listens are enough to enter this world full of beauty. What distinguishes his work is precisely the humanity that shines through the scores, the moving expressive yearning (singular in a protagonist of the post-Webernian current dedicated to radical experimentation) which found its ideal embodiment in the voice of the oboe.

Composed for Lothar Faber, the first two Concertos are spaced five years apart and invent new formal solutions by drastically rethinking the soloist-orchestra relationship, made independent of each other using that “controlled randomness” of which Maderna he is a recognized master. The oboe attempts to dialogue, rears up, releases its song through broad melodies and immediately afterwards climbs along capricious figurations. The orchestra interrupts him abruptly with violent figurations that at times reach the violence of a tornado; Maderna has repeatedly spoken about this musical symbolism, which represents Man perpetually in conflict with the brutality and ugliness present in the world around him.

In the “Third Concerto”, composed for Han De Vries, the dimension of singing takes on definitive characteristics, if Maderna had not been an atheist one could allude to those Views on the afterlife that Olivier Messiaen spoke about; this impression probably comes from knowing that Maderna would disappear after a few months, in any case the music is of great beauty, and is performed to perfection by the oboist Fabiau Menzel and the conductor Michael Stern.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.