Beat Furrer
Aria / Solo / Gaspra

THE REVIEW

Entitled "Aria", the opening piece of this CD, one would expect to hear a piece for solo voice with instrumental accompaniment: yet the soloist – in this case a soprano – does everything possible not to stand out and even "hides behind" the ensemble by vocalizing fragments instead of melodies: the result is nervous, lively music but inspired by the poetics of the fragment rather than discursiveness.

The piece was written in 1998-99 for an essential ensemble: female voice and 6 instruments. Beat Furrer, a composer born in Switzerland in 1954 but active in Austria for decades, is someone who does not shy away from the most delicate issues of musical composition today, chief among them acquiring a personal language, managing to detach from theoretical elaborations while trying to say, if possible, something new.

Thus, "Aria" would seem an ironic title, given that the soprano never actually intones a true phrase but instead resorts to onomatopoeias, whispers, emphasis on certain consonant sounds (like the s), and so on. If the soprano does not sing here, it is no surprise that in the next piece there is a cello that almost does not play. "Solo" is the title of the piece, written in 2000, and again irony seems to be lurking.

Here the challenge is represented by building a very long piece (22 minutes) entrusted to a single instrument, which further produces an inventory of musical micro-events using various techniques (pizzicati, stopped strings, glissandi, etc.). The writing is torn; the cello we knew, the one that launches into languid melodies, a memory. On the contrary, in "Solo" we witness the fragmentation of the musical fabric, where it seems that everything that can be said - musically speaking - has already been said, and the way out is the appeal, to make music, to extra-musical sound factors.

A cynical attitude, someone might say about this composer. Or disenchanted, rather. The third piece on the CD, "Gaspra" for an ensemble of seven musicians, is from 1988 and, as much as it is more traditional in conception, it confirms some characteristics of this composer: an ensemble reduced to the bare minimum, precise and meticulous writing that allows you to savor the sounds almost one at a time and that at times bursts into abrupt explosions. It's not easy music, that of Beat Furrer, who does not want to change the world but describes it effectively as it is now: already changed.