ConcertPulse
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / NDR Vokalensemble / Matthias Brandt / Jonathan Stockhammer
Elbphilharmonie, Großer Saal (Hamburg)
Luigi Nono always saw himself as a political person and composer. But rather than composing musical manifestos against social injustice, he believed in the power of music to educate and enlighten. As in 1956, when he – in his large-scale cantata »Il canto sospeso« – translated farewell letters by members of the resistance that had been sentenced to death into a stirring and highly poetic tonal language. The German-American conductor and Nono specialist Jonathan Stockhammer now presents this »suspended song« in the Grand Hall. Luigi Nono’s musical credo was to »awaken the ear, the eyes, human thought« with his works. This aspiration is reflected in the »Canto sospeso«, which was premiered in Cologne in 1956 and which – with its orchestra parts, a-cappella chorales and arias – also underlines Nono’s affinity for Italian madrigal and operatic art. Yet in its musical recollection, this »song« exudes a blazing presence.