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Communism used to be a dirty word in $heep City, $ingapore. You could be arrested under the city-state's draconian law of detention without trial if anyone labelled you a Marxist. That was just 30 years ago. Look around you today, every other Chinese in $heep City is a Communist from mainland China. The Marxists are everywhere.

Back when it wasn't hip to be a Marxist, Luigi Nono emerged from the post-war years together with contemporaries Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen to form a new wave of modern composers. Nono distinguished himself with his forward thinking and sincerity towards the left's goal - to take back power from the few to return it to the people.

His compositions were not static but dramatic, part music, part performance art and part electronica before it was even known by that name. Nono used modern electronics - recorded music to be played during a live performance. His cut and paste technique using famous speeches and everyday sounds is now standard for indie bands. Godspeed You! Black Emperor built their reputation creating such soundscapes.

Nono was to free himself from the concert halls by composing music that could be played in smaller rooms using modern audio equipment. Large set-pieces, dramatic speeches could be taped first and then played back later together with the live performers.

He passed away in 1990 at the age of 66. In 2005, the BBC broadcast a retrospective of his works. This excellent live recording offers newcomers an excellent primer of Luigi Nono's works from the beginning to the end.

Two pieces here show Nono's political leaning. The powerful "La Fabbrica Illuminata" (1964) is set in a factory. When a worker is injured, work at the assembly line stops. But management is more interested in productivity than the individual's plight. Sound effects, a chorus and other sonic props are used to great effect.

As Anne Ozorio reports, "La Fabbrica live is like theatre in the round, disembodied voices, mumbled speech, industrial sounds come from all over the auditorium. Nuria Nono [wife] said that Nono had been fascinated by the sounds of great furnaces in steelworks and the like. As in real life, sounds which come from everywhere aren't clear - the synthesis stimulates.

"(Claron) McFadden singing in dialogue with the recorded sounds was enthralling, a single human being interacting with a barrage from beyond. It was exquisitely painful and empowering at the same time. Nono's tapes were operated by an extraordinarily sensitive soundman, who could make the inanimate sound organic. Sounds Intermedia played the tapes like they were instruments, but McFadden was like an elemental force of Nature. Despite her grounding in the baroque, her feel for new music is profound."

The next piece Sofferte Onde Serene... [serene waves suffered], is a work for solo piano. This is dedicated to a fallen comrade, Chilean Luciano Cruz, an opponent of General Pinochet. Cruz was a revolutionary who died in 1971, two years before the coup which led to the death of Marxist president Salvador Allende and the installation of Pinochet. Nono implores the dead Cruz to "keep on glowing, young as the revolution in every one of your peoples' struggles." What we have here is an excerpt featuring the dramatic piano solo.

Nono's leftist views made him a target. At one point, he was banned from entering the U.S. like our modern day Cat Stevens. Nono's views did not win him the approval of concert promoters as classical works were meant for society's elites. Radio was to be a blessing for Nono as he could reach a wider audience with this medium.

For Nono, music was meant to challenge society to see a better world. You can now listen safely to Nono in $heep City, $ingapore, where Communist China is no longer a Red Menace but a friendly panda bear. An excellent BBC Radio 3 broadcast that was shared by Tantris88. Thank you.
- Professor Red

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Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality stereo MP3s - sample rate of 192 kibit/s). As far as we can ascertain, this recording has never been officially released.

These tracks are no longer available for download. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you want to download these tracks at a later time.

	Disc I
Track 101	Introduction (1.30) (2.0MB)
Track 102	Polifonica-Monodia-Ritmica (London Sinfonietta, cond Oliver Knussen) (18.11) part a (15.9MB) part b (9.0MB)
Track 103	Comment (2.22) (3.2MB)
Track 104	Canti per 13 (London Sinfonietta, cond. Oliver Knussen) (9.40) (13.2MB)
Track 105	Comment (2.42) (4.4MB)
Track 106	"Ha Venido" (Claron McFadden, BBC Singers, cond. Stephen Betteridge) (6.27) (8.8MB)
Track 107	Comment (0.27) (642k)
Track 108	Canciones a Guiomar (BBC Singers, London Sinfonietta, cond. Oliver Knussen) (8.23) (11.5MB)
Track 109	Interview by Tom Service with Nuria Schoenberg-Nono (Luigi Nono's wife) (10.10) (13.9MB)
Track 110	La Fabbrica Illuminata (Claron McFadden, Sound Intermedia) (16.38) part a (9.4MB) part b (13.3MB)
	Disc II
Track 201	Comment (2.56) (4.0MB)
Track 202	...Sofferte Onde Serene... [serene waves suffered] (Sarah Nicolls, piano) (13.51) part a (10.6MB) part b (8.3MB)
Track 203	Comment (3.15) (4.4MB)
Track 204	Con Luigi Dallapiccola (London Sinfonietta, cond. Oliver Knussen) (16.14) part a (10.4MB) part b (11.8MB)
Track 205	A Pierre. Dell'azzurro Silenzio, Inquietum (Sebastian Bell (contrabass flute), Andrew Webster (contrabass clarinet), Sound Intermedia) (10.42) (14.7MB)
Track 206	Outro (1.16) (1.7MB)

Lineup:
Claron McFadden (soprano)
Sarah Nicolls (piano)
Sebastian Bell (contrabass flute)
Andrew Webster (contrabass clarinet)
Sound Intermedia (electronics, tape)
London Sinfonietta with Oliver Knussen (conductor)
BBC Singers with Stephen Betteridge (conductor)

Here's a recent release of Nono's works by Stefania Woytowicz, Luigi Nono: Complete Works For Solo Tape. You can buy it here.

If you want a taste of Nono's politically charged compositions, Deutsch Grammaphone offered this 1988 recording, Luigi Nono: Como una ola de fuerza y luz, for Soprano, Piano, Orchestra & Magnetic Tape (1971-72) / ...sofferte onde serene... For Piano & Magnetic Tape (1976) / Contrapunto dialettico alla mente, for Magnetic Tape (1968) - Maurizio Pollini / Claudio Abbado. This is Nono's composition to a fallen comrade, Chilean Luciano Cruz, an opponent of General Pinochet. A portion of this work is on this free MP3 download on CD2 track 1. You can buy it here.