Aldo Clementi
Madrigale

Despite the ultraspartan and clinical cover graphic, this CD from the Swiss label Hat Hut Records offers more than one reason for interest: there are actually ten, matching the number of tracks composed by one of today's renowned musicians, Aldo Clementi.

Besides the youthful "Due studi" from 1956, these pieces were composed in 1979 ("Madrigale"), in the 1980s (three others), and in the 1990s (five). The arrangements are chamber music: ranging from a minimum of two instruments for the "Duetto" (flute and clarinet), to three instruments in the "Due canoni" (flute, piano, and violin), up to a maximum of nine for "im Himmelreich" and "Veni, creator" (in both cases for 3 strings, 4 winds, vibraphone, and celesta).

But beyond this survey, Clementi's music speaks for itself: you won't hear cacophonies or dissonance on this CD, the ten tracks flow pleasantly with dynamics that never approach forte, there are moments of extreme density alternating with others of tense rarefaction, and overall this is music that doesn't scream or shout but possesses the art of persuasion to the core.

Clementi constructs sound objects that he watches come to life and fade away within a few minutes: as happens in "Madrigale" for prepared piano and instruments: the same musical phrase, repeated continuously, which from an intricate initial density dwindles in rallentando, like a music box losing the charge given by the spring. The same happens in another track, "Om dagen i mitt arbete", a melody repeated endlessly that dies down in rallentando and with ever decreasing dynamic intensity.

It's a strange experience listening to these pieces... And where Clementi does not use the artifice of slowing time, he weaves extremely dense textures (in the "Duetto", in the "Scherzo", and elsewhere) that unravel as they approach the end. With limited means, that is, reduced instrumental ensembles, the Sicilian composer (born in Catania in 1925) constructs sound blends of great complexity but which have the gift of lightness, and often ensnare the listener in the hypnotic throb of certain sonorities (those of the vibraphone, for example, or the drone of an electric organ in the background).

So don't be deceived by the CD cover: Clementi's is the music of an absolutely significant protagonist who, by nature, has kept himself apart, avoiding bombastic proclamations. But when he sits at the desk piecing sounds together, not many reach his level.