Berio: Senquenza VIII

Day 221

Berio: Sequenza VIII for solo violin

Liza Ferschtman 

It is fascinating to consider what has happened to the reputations of the dominant figures of the avant garde in the years when I was a music student. Boulez remains a major figure but Stockhausen, Nono and Berio have rather faded away and I wonder whether they will eventually be seen as minor ‘interesting’ figures by musicians 100 years from now. I did listen to a fair bit of Berio in my student days but it must be years since I heard anything of his. The series of sequenzas for solo instrument occupied him for much of his life and they still are studied by advanced players as a way of extending their techniques.

In this notes for Sequenza VIII Berio mentions the way that the Bach chaconne has an inescapable resonance for anybody writing solo violin music. This Sequenza of course sounds nothing like Bach but one can still feel the kinship over two centuries. There is a seriousness to this music and the way that the opening long note pattern keep reemerging out of the complexity of the texture gives the listener a good anchor point. So this was undoubtedly ‘real’ music which goes beyond mere technical interest.