Trio

photo: Barbara Rigon

Cristina Zavalloni, voice, Monica Germino (violin), and Andrea Rebaudengo, piano, play works by Louis Andriessen and kindred spirits

Louis Andriessen (1939):

Trois Piéces for left hand (1961) (piano solo)
Base (1994) (piano solo)
Xenia (2005) (violin solo)
Letter from Cathy (2003) (trio)
Tuin van Eros (2002) (violin and piano)
Trepidus (1983) (piano solo)
Beatles songs (1966) (voice and piano)
Louis Andriessen: Le Voile du Bonheur (1966/1971)(violin and piano)
Passeggiata in tram in America e ritorno (1998) (trio)
with film by Marijke van Warmerdam (optional)
Cristina Zavalloni/Louis Andriessen: Bastava quel cielo (voice and violin)

With further options of:

John Cage: Six melodies (1950) (violin and piano)
Igor Stravinsky: Tango (1945) (solo piano)
Igor Stravinsky: The owl and the pussycat (1966) (voice and piano)
Igor Stravinsky: Souvenir de mon enfance) (1947) (voice and piano)


A few notes about the program:
full program notes available upon request

Letter from Cathy (2003) (trio version)
When I studied composition with Luciano Berio in the early sixties in Milan, I also rehearsed and performed concerts and radio recordings with Cathy Berberian, who was at that time married to Berio. Then, one year ago, Cristina Zavalloni asked me to compose a song for her for the Berberian project of I Teatri. Cristina, for whom I had already written several other pieces, is the first singer I've met since Cathy Berberian who has the same musicality and flexibility, and who is able to cross over the borders of different singing styles. Therefore I decided to read through my ca. 30 letters and postcards I kept from Cathy Berberian, to find a good text for the piece. I chose the letter in which Cathy tells about her meeting with Stravinsky (who speaks French in this letter) where he decided to make a version for her of "Elegy for J.F. Kennedy". Although some parts of the letter are somewhat personal and, you might say, touching, I decided to use the letter in its unabridged form. -Louis Andriessen, May 2003

Passeggiata in tram in America e ritorno (1999) (trio version)
The DVD Passeggiata in America e ritorno was made in 1999. The score consists of a short "ouverture" for keyboard and a song for jazz singer, violin and keyboard. The text solo consists of two long fragments of the poem in prose by Dino Campana with the same name. The visual artist Marijke van Warmerdam made a rigorous interpretation of Campana’s beautiful, surrealist poetry into an adventurous, poly-interpretable imagery. The song is especially composed for the Italian singer Cristina Zavalloni. -Louis Andriessen

Xenia (2005) (for violin solo)
Xenia consists of three contrasting parts. Part I, Sarabande, is a slow movement, one of serene composure. Caccia is the second part, quick in tempo: a chase. The poet Rimbaud’s words are central in the last part, Song. The piece was commissioned by the Manchester International Violin Competition and is dedicated to Monica Germino. She first performed XENIA at the opening of the 2005 Holland Festival in the Concertgebouw, as part of visual artist Anna Lange’s film installation Xenia I, II, III.

Trepidus (1983)
Trepidus (Latin for restless, agitated) originated from material for the orchestral work De Snelheid. In Trepidus velocity is battled: the opening-melody is played in increasingly faster tempi, but until the end with five- to six-tone chords. A concert etude, but also a choral arrangement, in which all voices increase speed simultaneously. The piece is dedicated to Gerard Bouwhuis. -Louis Andriessen

Le Voile du Bonheur (for violin and piano)
Le Voile du Bonheur started off as a contribution to a collection of didactic violin music to be written by Reinbert de Leeuw (this collection never came into existence). Later, Andriessen added a teenage tune to it.