Luca Francesconi Tickets

Luca Francesconi (born 17 March 1956 in Milan) is an Italian composer. He studied at the Milan Conservatory, then with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio.

Early years
Luca Francesconi was born in Milan. His father was a painter who edited Il Corriere dei piccoli and conceived Il Corriere dei ragazzi, while his mother, an advertiser, created a number of famous advertising campaigns. Francesconi spent his early years in QT8, a working class quarter in Milan that rose up alongside a huge pile of post-war rubble which would later become Monte Stella. At the age of five, won over by a concert by Svjatoslav Richter, he began to learn the piano. Although he was accepted into the junior high school section of the city's conservatory six years later, he instinctively pulled out, thinking that it was too academic and conventional. Instead, even though he had in the meantime moved with his family to a more central quarter of Milan, Francesconi opted to attend the junior high school in QT8. In this way from a very early age his relationship with music and life in general took on a course of responsibility and constant choice, of research and direct experimentation.

Education
We need to profoundly rethink and filter in a determined way the enormously rich potential that has been elaborated in the past and to use it for expressive purposes.

Francesconi returned to the Conservatory of Milan in 1974, while he was still attending the Berchet Classical Languages High School, and explored the length and breadth of the musical landscape, taking an interest in every possible dimension of sound. He played in jazz and rock groups as well as in classical concerts, he worked as a session man in recording studios, and he composed music for theatre, cinema, advertising, and television. These were all rewarding experiences, not least from an economic point of view, but they were not enough. He realised that a truly living language, while looking at the present, draws its lifeblood from its roots. The time had come for him to dig into the tradition of music to which he belonged. The Milan Conservatory was opening more and more space to contemporary music so Francesconi enrolled in the composition course conducted by Azio Corghi. "From him I learnt the trade, the fundamentals, counterpoint and those things, professional seriousness and open-mindedness." In the meantime he continued to explore electronic music and in 1977 took time out to immerse himself in jazz at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

A student of Karlheinz Stockhausen
The mountain is in front of us and it is necessary to pass over it, with enormous force and patience. It's not enough just to contemplate it nor to sneak by it via secondary paths much less go backwards claiming that the mountain is not there.

Donnerstag aus Licht went on stage at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1981. Stockhausen is a historical reference point: Francesconi admired him for his extraordinary organisational consistency, for his tireless search for a linguistic unity. He was also deeply struck by the visionary quality of this initial opera. He wanted to observe the composer at work so he enrolled in the intensive course that Stockhausen held in Rome that same year. "From him I learnt rigor, at first imbibing it by osmosis, and then demythologising it."

Meeting and collaboration with Luciano Berio
Luciano didn't talk much about the more 'technical' and delicate aspects of his work as a composer. I remember that when he least expected it, I would fire questions at him point blank, hoping to pick up some tips. His replies were like enigmas. They had something sacral about them and they required divining rituals to decode them. With Berio Francesconi studied above all in the field, just like the workshop artisans of old, acting as his assistant from 1981 to 1984. He worked directly on the score of La vera storia and participated in the production as rehearsal pianist and second conductor/substitute maestro. In 1984 he collaborated with the composer in the rewriting of Monteverdi's Orfeo. He was also present with Berio at Tanglewood where he attended one of his famous summer courses.

Works, editions and recordings

• I Quartetto for strings, 1977
• Passacaglia for great orchestra, 1982
• Concertante for guitar and ensemble, Tanglewood 1982
• Viaggiatore insonne for soprano and 5 instruments (text by Sandro Penna), 1983
• Notte for mezzo-soprano and 19 instruments (text by Sandro Penna), 1983–1984
• Suite 1984 forr orchestra, African percussionists and jazz quintet with the Orchestra of the Ente Lirico di Cagliari, the Franco D'Andrea's band and Africa Djolé from Ivory Coast, directed by the composer, 1984
• Finta-di-nulla for soprano and 19 instruments (text by Umberto Fiori), 1985
• Onda sonante for 8 instruments, 1985
• Vertige for string orchestra, 1985
• Da capo for 9 instruments, 1985–1986
• Encore/Da capo for 9 instruments, 1985–1995
• Impulse II for clarinet, violin and piano, 1985, 1995
• Al di là dell'oceano famoso for 8 solo mixed voices, Netherland Radio Chamber Choir, 1985
• Secondo quartetto (Mondriaan Quartet)
• Tracce for flute, 1985-1987
• Plot in fiction for bassoon, English horn and 11 instruments, 1986
• Respiro for trombone solo, 1987
• Trama for saxophone and orchestra, 1987
• Mambo, for piano solo, 1987
• Attesa for reed quartet, 1988
• La voce, folk song for soprano and 13 instruments (text by Umberto Fiori), 1988
• Aeuia for baritone and 11 instruments (based on a text by di Jacopone da Todi), 1989
• Les barricades mystérieuses for flute and orchestra, 1989
• Piccola trama for saxophone and 8 instruments, 1989
• Richiami II - 1st study on memory, 1989–1992
• Memoria for orchestra, 1990
• Secondo Concerto for oboe and chamber orchestra, 1991
• Mittel for five moving bands, 1991
• Riti neurali, 3rd study on memory for violin and 8 instruments, 1991
• Islands concerto for piano and chamber orchestra, 1992
• Miniature for 16 instruments, 1992
• Voci for soprano, violin and magnetic tape (text by Umberto Fiori), 1992
• Aria for wind octet, 1993
• Plot II for saxophone and 15 instruments, 1993
• Risonanze d'Orfeo, suite for wind orchestra from'Orfeo di Claudio Monteverdi, 1993
• Trama II for clarinet, orchestra and live electronics, 1993
• Terzo quartetto "Mirrors" for strings, Arditti Quartet, De Singel Antwerpen, 1994
• Ballata del rovescio del mondo, radio-opera on texts by Umberto Fiori, 1994
• Etymo for soprano, chamber orchestra and live electronics, from Charles Baudelaire, commission by IRCAM for soprano, Ensemble InterContemporain, conductor Pascal Rophé, soprano Luisa Castellani, Klangregie by the composer,1994
• A fuoco - 4th study on memory for guitar and ensemble, 1995
• Animus for trombone and live electronics, 1995–1996
• Inquieta limina. Un omaggio a Berio for ensemble with accordion, 1996
• Venti Radio-Lied, radiofilms, texts by Umberto Fiori, with Moni Ovadia and Phillis Blanford, 1996–1997
• Sirene/Gespenster, Heathen Oratorio for female choir in four cantorie, brasses, percussion and electronics, 1996–1997
• Striaz, video-opera for 4 female choirs and electronics, production Mittelfest/Video: Studio Azzurro, 1996
• Ballata, opera, 1996–1999, text by Umberto Fiori from The Rhyme of an Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, commission by Théâtre de la Monnaie di Bruxelles, conductor Kazushi Ono, stage director Achim Freyer
• Respondit, two madrigals by Carlo Gesualdo transcripted and revised per 5 instruments with an electronic spacing, 1997
• Lips, Eyes Bang, for actress/singer, 12 instruments, audio and video in real time, Amsterdam, Nieuw Ensemble, AGON, Studio Azzurro, STEIM, voice Phyllis Blandford, 1998.
• Memoria II for orchestra, 1998
• Wanderer for great orchestra, January 2000 Teatro alla Scala, Milano conductor Riccardo Muti, Filarmonica della Scala
• Cobalt, Scarlet. Two Colours of Dawn for large orchestra, 1999–2000
• Terre del rimorso, (finished in 2001), commissioned by État francese for soli, coro and orchestra, for the Festival di Strasburgo, 6 October 2001, SWR Symphonie Orchester and Vokalensemble Stuttgart, conductor Péter Eötvös, 2000-2001
• Aria Novella, for double quartet, Paris, Ensemble Itinéraire, 2001
• Let me Bleed, Requiem for Carlo Giuliani for mixed choir a cappella, on texts by Attilio Bertolucci, 2001 Swedish Radio Choir, SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, RSO Stuttgart, Eötvös
• Buffa opera texts by Stefano Benni, singer and actor Antonio Albanese, 2002
• Controcanto, ensemble of 10 to 25 instruments, world premiere in Bruxelles, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Ensemble Ictus, conductor Georges-Elie Octors, 2003
• Cello concerto "Rest" Quartetto d'archi di Torino, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Pierre Boulez, Roberto Abbado
• Gesualdo Considered as a Murderer, opera, libretto by Vittorio Sermonti, 2004
• Quarto Quartetto I voli di Niccolò, string quartet, commission by Paganiniana 2004, Genova, to Cesare Mazzonis, Arditti Quartet, 2004
• Kubrick's Bone, for cimbalom and ensemble, 2005
• Accordo reed quintet, Calefax, 2005
• Body Electric, for violino, guitar rig and double ensemble, Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw, Orkest de Volharding and Doelen Ensemble, conductor Jussi Jaatinen, soloist Irvine Arditti, 2006
• Sea Shell for great chorus, on a text by Alceo (translated by Salvatore Quasimodo). Swedish Radio Choir, Stoccolma, 2006
• Da capo II, for 8 instruments, Settimane Musicali di Stresa, Ensemble Bit20, conductor J. Stockhammer, 2007
• Animus II, for viola and live electronics, Paris, Ircam Espace de projection, Festival Agora, soloist Garth Knox, commission by Françoise and Jean-Philippe, 2007
• Strade parallele, for 6 instruments, electronics and video on a text by Norberto Bobbio, Roma, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Ensemble Alter Ego, 2007
• Hard Pace; for trumpet and orchestra, Rome, Auditorium, Orchestra of Santa Cecilia Academy, soloist Håkan Hardenberger, conductor Antonio Pappano, 2007
• Fresco, for five moving bands, 2007
• Unexpected End of Formula, for cello, ensemble and electronics, Köln, WDR FunkHaus, musikFabrik conductor Christian Eggen, soloist DirkWietheger, ZKM live-elektronik, 2008
• Animus III, for tuba and live electronics, Köln, WDR FunkHaus, soloist Melvyn Poore, ZKM Live-Elektronik, 2008
• Sirènes, for mixed choir in five groups, orchestra and electronics, commissioned by Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2009
• Time, Real and Imaginary, Commande d'État francese for mezzo-soprano and four instruments on a text by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 2009
• Attraverso, for soprano and ensemble, Monteverdi celebrations, commissioned by Music Across Festival of Regione Lombardia and Teatro Ponchielli of Cremona, 2009
• Jeu de Musica, for ensemble, Strasbourg, Festival Musica, 2010
• Quartett, opera, libretto written in English by the composer, from the pièce by Heiner Müller, commission by Teatro alla Scala, stage direction by La Fura dels Baus, conductor Susanna Mälkki, 2011
• Terra, opera-oratorio, libretto by Valeria Parrella, opening of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Italian Republic, Naples, Teatro San Carlo, stage director Jean Kalman, conductor Jonathan Webb, 2011
• Herzstück, based on a text by Heiner Müller, commission by Neue Vocalsolisten for the Eclat Festival, 2012
• Atopia, oratorio based on a text by Piero della Francesca and Calderón della Barca, Madrid, 2012
• Piano Concerto, for pianoforte and orchestra, with Nic Hodges, Oporto 2013
• Duende, The Dark Notes, with Leila Josefowicz, coproduction of Swedish Radio, RAI, BBC Proms, 2014
• Dentro non ha tempo, for large orchestra, in memoriam Luciana Pestalozza, commission by Teatro alla Scala, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, 2014
• Vertical Invader, concerto grosso for reed quintet and orchestra, Calefax Reed Quintet, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest and Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest conducted by Osmo Vänskä, 2015.
• Bread, Water and Salt, Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, conductor Antonio Pappano, soprano Pumeza Matshikiza