BRUNO MADERNA (1920-1973): Hyperion - Suite from the Opera for Soprano, Flute, Oboe, Reciter, Chorus and Orchestra.

Description: Maderna's Hyperion, after Hölderlin's epistolary novel, has a complicated history, and exists in a number of versions; it was in fact a work of flexible content and indeterminate form during the composer’s lifetime. The history of the evolution of the piece is usefully described in the booklet. The book is an exploration of Romantic ideals, beauty, love, death, and conflict, in terms of philosophy and allegory. Responding to this, Maderna focused on the work as an expression of the alienated condition of contemporary man, in keeping with his own beliefs, and from 1964 onward assembled and rewrote a number of versions for three different productions plus several suites, incorporating existing material and composing new sections, including two striking, extended choral episodes in a 1969 version that are beautiful and dramatic, and notably devoid of avant garde excesses, which are included here. The orchestral movements are, as is typical of Maderna, coloristically miraculous, sensuously sumptuous and dramatically impactful. This recording is of the 1980 performance of a version based on the 1969 suite reconstructed in 1978 and adapted by the actor Carmelo Bene, who rearranged eight movements and incorporated material from other sources to lend the work a more linear, narrative structure based on his own narration of the texts. So in this performance the work is a passionately acted monodrama - the second part of which concentrates on Hölderlin's tragic love "Diotima" material with all its emotive potential for an Italian actor - superimposed on Maderna's imagery-rich score, aside from the striking Aria, which Maderna used as part of the original 1964 version, used as a prelude. This is thus just one of a vast number of possible manifestations of the Hyperion "multiverse" (to borrow a popular current buzzword), but a valid and dramatically effective one. Texts available online. Annette Mariwaether (soprano), (Angelo Persichilli (flute), Augusto Loppi (oboe), Carmelo Bene (reciter), Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of RAI Milan; Marcello Panni.