Luciano Berio: Coro

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Free Music Notes for Luciano Berio: Coro

Free Music Review: plan for an imaginary city
Hit: 5 Stars

Berio has not been known for his political engagement, in contrast to Nono, but "Coro" centers on a fragment of Neruda's poetry, the line: "Venid a ver la sangre por las calles," or "Come and see the blood in the streets." The import is less clear than in Nono's explicitly revolutionary work, but why choose Neruda, a man of the left, if not to make a point? The work was written from 1975 to 1977, shortly after Pinochet's bloody U.S.-backed coup in Chile, and first recorded in 1980. This is that recording, with Berio himself conducting, reissued in DG's 20/21 Echo series (there is at least one other recording, on Col Legno). The timing, unfortunately, is all too appropriate, given the bombs that will soon fall, and the blood that will run in the streets in Iraq.

Berio weaves folk narratives throughout the piece, punctuated by the line from Neruda, from his Residencia en la Tierra (1933-47). He utilizes texts from the Sioux and Navajo, Peru, Polynesia, Gabon, Venice and Sicily, Hebrew, and others. While sung in German, the excellent booklet, with notes by both Berio and Paul Griffiths, includes all the lyrics in English. As Griffiths points out, "These folk utterances...are expressed in short pregnant phrases and speak of a oneness between man and nature, of a life ordered by ritual, of love and death accepted without qualm or confusion."

For anyone with ears open to the sounds of modern music, "Coro" is not to be missed. Along with Nono's "Coma una ola de fuerza y luz," it is a masterpiece of the 20th century.

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