Enantiosemie: Contemporary Masterworks For Clarinet & Guitar – Sauro Berti

Music has always enjoyed a prominent place in contemporary society, whether it was produced in past centuries or, as in this case, written in recent or very recent periods. Defining today what is actually a masterpiece in contemporary music is difficult, since the musical perception we have of this word is strongly conditioned by what the “broom of history” has left of the past. The title of this record can sound ambitious and, in some cases, arrogant if you stop at the mere surface. And the latter would be a very serious mistake, since this disc with the particular title Enantiosemie, of masterpieces and gems reserves many, starting from the evocative first and very particular composition presented by Nadir Vassena “First heretical discourse on the lightness of nails” almost Kunderian as in the subsequent Sound Sculptures by Scott Lygate we can certainly speak of masterpieces dedicated to this pair of instruments. Equally fascinating can be considered the beautiful “Tale of Apollo and Marsyas” by Antonio Bellandi or the wonderful Trio N.1 by Andor Kovach, which sees the participation of the important flutist Matteo Evangelisti. Leading this delicate presentation, or parade, masterpieces are the clarinetist Sauro Berti here at his best also as a composer, and Leonardo de Marchi on guitar. Both give each piece an unparalleled warmth and intensity capable of breaking the common myths linked to the alleged difficulty of contemporary music and restoring compositions and melodies of rare beauty and incisiveness with disarming naturalness.