Album review: Ensemble Algoritmo, Anna Radziejewska, Sciarrino: Cantiere Del Poema (Stradivarius)

Ensemble Algoritmo, Anna Radziejewska, Sciarrino: Cantiere Del Poema (Stradivarius)

The music of Salvatore Sciarrino dispenses with nearly all the conventions of Western classical form, yet somehow retains a purposive momentum. These are sound events, rather than musical pieces, a form of expressionistic sonic grammar with definite narrative but little definable melody – instead, the instruments create a sort of aural mise en scène in which the vocal exists.

The notion of a “sound garden” in “L'altro giardino” is apt enough for this 18th-century Sicilian song, deconstructed into individual, repeated phrases against a backdrop of curious sonic blooms, while “Il cantiere del poema” employs similarly abstract methods to create a wasteland of keening tones.

Download: Il cantiere del poema; L'altro giardino