Différences

We borrowed the title of this concert from Sarah Nemtsov, who called a cycle of ensemble pieces "A Long Way Away. Passages" and refers to Walter Benjamin, among others. For Benjamin's fragmentary "Passages", observing and describing phenomena is essential in order to trace the social phenomena revealed in them. With the exception of Berio's "Différences", this perspective is common to all the works in this programme: Gérard Pesson's "Le Gel, par jeu", a kind of ghostly dance of death, refers to the abysmal poetry of Sandro Penna and Emely Dickson: "Their work, seemingly so different were it not for their shared depth and a quiet seriousness, is linked in my memory to the city of Rome and the gardens of the Villa Medici, which I saw from the windows of my study." Giorgio Musolesi's new work is inspired by photographs by Gregory Crewdson, Sabine Weiss and Marion Kalter, which may have something to do with paths into the light. Sarah Nemtsov's "Landscapes / Desert" refers to a Californian desert landscape. Finally, Hugues Dufourt has composed a cycle of four ensemble pieces with which he enters into dialogue with a masterpiece of Baroque painting: Tiepolo's ceiling painting in the staircase of the Würzburg Residenz, on which the four continents of Asia, Africa, America and Europe are allegorically depicted.