opening concert

Francesca Verunelli: Songs & Voices

for six voices, 10 instruments, and electronics (2022/23)

Neue Vocalsolisten

Johanna Vargas, soprano | Susanne Leitz-Lorey, soprano | Helena Sorokina, mezzo-soprano

Martin Nagy, tenor | Guillermo Anzorena, baritone | Andreas Fischer, bass

Ensemble C Barré

Ayumi Mori, bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet | Joël Versavaud, soprano saxophone and baritone saxophone | Matthias Champon, trumpet | Elodie Soulard, accordion | Claudio Bettinelli, percussion | Natalia Korsak, mandolin | Rémy Reber, acoustic and electric guitar | Eva Debonne, harp | Marine Rodallec, cello | Charlotte Testu, double bass

Conductor Sébastien Boin

Sound direction: Philippe Boinon | Jean Millot, computer music producer | Paul Sarraquigne, sound manager | Bertrand Schacre, stage manager

ECLAT begins with a musical celebration–a wonderful collaboration between the French ensemble C Barré and the Neue Vocalsolisten. Franz Kafka’s »Silence of the Sirens«, with all its paradoxes, inspired Francesca Verunelli to write her magnificent cycle Songs & Voices.

What is the voice in the absence of singing? And what is singing without a voice? Between these impossible extremes, all the nuances of instrumental and vocal expression unfold, always accompanied by an urgent energy that the composer relentlessly controls. Pure high tension!

The piece tells of farewells and transitions, highly energetic and wistful, powerful and tender, fragile and flooded with love.

Commissioned and co-produced by the Venice Biennale, IRCAM, Musik der Jahrhunderte Stuttgart, GMEM–Centre national de Création Musicale, Wittener Tage Für Neue Kammermusik 2024, Grame CNCM.

Commission supported by »l’aide à l’écriture d’une œuvre musicale nouvelle originale« from the French Ministry of Culture.