Clara IannottaThe thousand sounds of the world

Records 14.12.2021

Clara Iannotta explains that she composes obsessively, digging out to the point of absurdity a small detail that calls out to her, usually an imperfection, which she insists on expressing as fully as possible. She says that her writing allows her to probe her inner self and to discover unknown places that she is not always ready to reveal. Her works are full of a breathtaking richness of sound, which she achieves through extensive instrumental interplay and the use of many peripheral objects, asserting that her music is to be seen as well as heard. Although the listener is deprived of the spectacle of the musicians in action, this magnificent monographic CD remains a fascinating listening experience.

MOULT (2018-2019) for chamber orchestra, the work that gives its name to the disc, performed by the WDR Sinfonieorchestrer under the baton of Michael Wenderberg, is a long continuum of sound that evokes the process of a moult, beginning with sighs, whispers, caresses, squeaks, pinches, tinkles, rubs, scrapes and scratches. After a moment of focus on the ostinato of a high-pitched piano note, several explosions testify to both the violence of the transformation and the fragility that results from it. Several other phases follow, punctuated by sudden shocks, without the sound ever dying out, sustained by a chiselled, organic and virtuoso writing.

paw-marks in wet cement (ii) (2015-2018), for piano, two percussion instruments and amplified orchestra, is performed by Wilhem Latchoumia and L'Instant Donné conducted by Aurélien Azan-Zielinski. Inspired by the work of the Irish poet Dorothy Molloy, the composition ("Footsteps in fresh cement") is like an invention of music, from the impulse of an original movement to the continuous spinning of materials. In a second phase, the piano insinuates rhythmic punctuations which are amplified in resonance by the granular orchestral textures, in a concertante dialogue.

Clara Iannotta evokes the image of a dust-filled room for Troglodyte Angels Clanck By (2015), in which the eye, at first lost, gradually becomes accustomed to distinguishing materials and luminosities. Indeed, this piece for amplified ensemble, whose title is also inspired by Dorothy Molloy, played by the Klangforum Wien conducted by Enno Poppe, presents several very diverse phases: a glittering rain of percussive sounds, mineral resonances followed by a chaotic swarming crossed by screams. It seems as if one is entering the heart of the stone to capture its soothing inner resonance.

Is it really necessary to know that the composer starts from the 'Courante' and the 'Double' of Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita No. 1 for solo violin to unfold her writing for string orchestra in dead wasps in the jam-jar (ii) (2016)? This work, performed by the Münchener Kammerorchester under the direction of Clemens Schuldt, is full of murmurs and once again gives the idea of a deep-sea dive, in the speleology of a sigh explored in all its phases, including the most violent, and in the shimmering of a fabulous underwater world. Ending with the creaking, dull rumbling and high-pitched squeaking of a rusty mechanism, the music struggles to fade away, and the emotion never leaves us.

Clara Iannotta's sound jungle imposes itself on the listener as a listening universe, an all-encompassing experience where temporality, space and materials open up an introspective journey that is difficult to resist.

Guillaume Kosmicki

Buy Kairos Editions

Related

buy twitter accounts
betoffice