1+1=1

Pierluigi Billone
Petra Stump and Heinz-Peter Linshalm, bass clarinet

"One drop plus one drop equals a bigger drop, not two drops!," says the lunatic and hermit Domenico in Andrei Tarkovsky's film Nostalghia in explanation of the inscription "1+1=1", while pouring two drops of olive oil into his hand. Italian composer Pierluigi Billone has adopted this formula as a title of a work that points to a more profound understanding of "oneness". It explores the manifold possibilities of two bass clarinets, which merge into one unified sound just like two drops.

The project 1+1=1 was conceived by the composer with the two clarinettists, who are both based in Vorarlberg, and the work has been performed several times and recorded for CD. The composer will attend the concert himself and will speak about the project with the musicians.

Of darkness and silence

Ensemble Lux
Works by Luigi Nono and Georg Friedrich Haas

A late work by Luigi Nono explores the boundary between sound and silence. The piece alludes to poems by Hölderlin that are dedicated to his great love, who he named Diotima. Quotations from music by Verdi, Beethoven and from medieval music are woven into the fabric of a composition which musically revolves around the fundamental questions "Where am I and who am I?" In this music, which at times is barely audible, Nono seeks to externalise memories as well as the pain and the hope to be found in the music of the past. For some time now the Vorarlberg composer Georg Friedrich Haas has experimented with the possibilities of making music in the dark. His Third String Quartet is played in complete darkness. The musicians can neither read the music nor see their fellow instrumentalists. They are seated far apart from one another, around the audience, in the four corners of the concert hall. The audience in consequence not only hears what is played but also senses the energy of what is not played; the silent communication between the musicians in the performance space is itself part of the work. The young virtuoso Ensemble Lux from Vienna returns to Bregenz after its successful concerts in Art of Our Times in 2008 and 2010.