MAURIZIO GUERNIERI (b.1961): Elementa I for Solo Cello, Elementa II for Violin and Piano, Elementa VII for 2 Sopranos, Alto and String Qunitet, Lightscape for Flute, Contrabass and Piano, Con templum Cœli for Violin and Piano, Adoro Te Devote for Solo Voices and A-Cappella Choir, Quartett 2 “Immaginari sonori Rapsodico” for String Quartet.

Description: Spiritual concepts are an important feature of this thoroughly approachable but thought-provoking composer's music; the previous survey of his music that we offered (01S042) paid tribute to sacred music of the past, as do the works with voices here. The "Elements" series of works and the other instrumental pieces explore themes of humankind’s relationship with nature. The beautiful and poetic Elementa VII combines both, setting the words of a 13th century poetess in an exploration of the dissonance that occurs when the harmonious order of things is disrupted. Lightscape is an illuminated landscape in music, with its light and shadows, which relates it to the skyward gaze of "With the Temple of the Sky” and its transcription into a serene choral prayer in the radiant Adoro Te Devote. The 20-minute quartet explores ideas of creativity and imagination by contrasting textures, melody and rhythm, harmony and open intervals, consonance and dissonance, in six movements with a strong tonal basis, like the other works here. 22 ensembles and performers.