Berio - 34 Duetti per due violini (1979-83)

“Berio began his 34 Duets (1979-1982) as a set of exercises in the spirit of Bartók’s Mikrokosmos, i.e. pieces that would offer an opportunity for inexperienced players to perform music in a contemporary idiom while unhindered by undue technical difficulty. While some of the Duets fall within this scope, Berio’s focus broadens in a number of the pieces to include personal, social, and cultural commentary. Each of the Duets is named for one of one of Berio’s musical friends, “Pierre“ [Boulez], for example, or predecessors, as in “Béla“ [Bartók]. The pieces, however, are not caricatures, but rather represent changing musical perspectives filtered through Berio’s stylistic approaches. Although each of the Duets has a particular musical character, Berio’s reference points for the pieces’ namesakes seem to be more private than public. As a group, the Duets tie in with Berio’s long-standing aesthetic concerns: the juxtaposition of folk-like with serially influenced melodies, allusion, and connotation, and constant awareness of the violin’s performance tradition. The last of these connects the Duets with Berio’s Sequenza series for solo instruments, particularly Sequenza VIII (1976) for solo violin, written just prior to the Duets and the most historically “aware“ entry of the Sequenza series. Each of the Duets has a tonal center and may be described as essentially a melody with accompaniment. Many are about 30 seconds long; most are between 30 and 75 seconds. The longest, “Edoardo,“ is not a duet but an ensemble piece, to be performed (presumably) by an entire class of beginners. Each Duet may be breifly described as follows: 1. Béla (Bartók): simple modal melody, essentially two-pitch accompaniment. 00:30 2. Shlomit (Almog): melody; three-pitched accompaniment of different phrase length. 01:17 3. Yossi (Pecker): very active, repeated-note figures set against one another; a basic melody based on a five-pitch rising and falling scale. 02:00 4. Rodion (Schedrin): contemplative melody; simple countermelody. 03:17 5. Maja (Pliseckaja): slow, intense, rising three-pitch figure developing into a two-octave scale. 04:12 6. Bruno (Maderna): a charming, almost naïve, quick waltz with double stops and strummed chords in the subordinate part. 05:04 7. Camilla (Adami): asymmetrical scale with a nervous two-pitch figure. 06:43 8. Peppino (di Giugno): Romantic, contrapuntal song. 07:34 9. Marcello (Parmi): melody of half-steps plus fifth, repeating phrase and antecedent. 08:54 10. Giorgio Federico (Ghedini): lyric adagio; pizzicato accompaniment. 09:59 11. Valerio (Adami): short melodic phrase transforming texturally. 11:06 12. Daniela (Rabinovitch): two complementary scales in contrary motion, straightforward rhythm. 11:51 13. Jeanne (Parmi): grating multi-stops, melody like a brutal children’s tune. 12:50 14. Pierre (Boulez): crossing scales, skittering ponticello texture. 14:11 15. Tatjana (Globokar): naïve tune and counterpoint, in harmonics. 15:07 16. Rivi (Pecker): lamenting chromatic tune, arpeggiated counterpoint. 16:01 17. Leonardo (Pinzauti): major-scale exercise against active modal part. 16:51 18. Piero (Farulli): martial double stops; modal melody. 18:20 19. Annie (Neuberger): surreal carnival waltz; double stopped accompaniment. 20:21 20. Edoardo (Sanguinetti): for the whole ensemble with two “soloists,“ aggressive tremolos. 20:54 21. Fiamma (Nicolodi): exercise-like passages superimposed at different pitch ranges. 25:05 22. Vinko (Globokar): ebbing and flowing repeated-note accompaniment under arpeggiated melody. 26:05 23. Franco (Gulli): interfering parts in similar range; scalar melodies. 26:39 24. Aldo (Bennici): lovely Italian folk-like tune, contrary motion counterpoint (best one). 27:42 25. Carlo (Chiarappa): odd-sounding arpeggiated rising and falling tune, development. 29:39 26. Henri (Pousseur): folk-like tune with repeated-note pizzicato. 30:24 27. Alfredo (Fiorenzani): quiet skittering ponticello accompaniment; slow tune. 31:09 28. Igor (Stravinsky): stolid Russian folk-like tune, simple background. 32:00 29. Alfred (Schlee): manic, staccato, tune with accompaniment. 32:42 30. Massimo (Mila): slow, expressionistic; short outbursts of emotion. 33:56 31. Mauricio (Kagel): two sections, major mode phrase reprised with intervals skewed. 36:03 32. Maurice (Fleurer): double-stop main motif developing into freer scales, returning. 37:01 33. Lorin (Maazel): aggressive, petulant low part, faster commentary above. 38:15 34. Lele (d’Amico): light ponticello high accompaniment, melancholy minor-mode tune. 40:31