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Collage, writ large: Berio's Sinfonia

Tom Service explores Luciano Berio's 1968 Sinfonia - a collage of texts and musical quotations by Samuel Beckett, Claude L茅vi-Strauss, Beethoven, Debussy, Mahler and Schoenberg.

Tom Service explores Luciano Berio's Sinfonia - an iconic piece of the late 1960s modernism, scored for orchestra and eight amplified voices who speak, whisper and shout texts by Samuel Beckett and Claude L茅vi-Strauss. This groundbreaking work also incorporates a mass of musical quotations, from Bach to Stockhausen and everything in between.

Tom's witness is the virtuoso sitarist and composer Jasdeep Singh Degun, who like Berio, took Monteverdi's opera Orfeo and reinvented it.

Produced by Dom Wells

Available now

29 minutes

Music Played

  • Luciano Berio

    Sinfonia for 8 solo voices and orchestra vers. 1969 [5 movements]

    Performer: Electric Phoenix. Performer: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Conductor: Riccardo Chailly.
    • DECCA.
    • 425-832-2.
  • Claudio Monteverdi

    Orfeo: Plutone and Proserpina

    Composer: Jasdeep Singh Degun. Conductor: Laurence Cummings. Performer: Chandra Chakraborty. Performer: Dean Robinson. Performer: Orchestra of Opera North.
  • Luciano Berio

    Sinfonia for 8 solo voices and orchestra vers. 1969 [5 movements]

    Performer: Electric Phoenix. Performer: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Conductor: Riccardo Chailly.
    • DECCA.
    • 425-832-2.
  • Eric Coates

    By the sleepy lagoon - valse serenade

    Performer: 大象传媒 Philharmonic. Conductor: John Wilson.
    • CHANDOS.
    • CHAN 20036.
  • John Lennon

    Ticket to Ride

    Composer: Paul McCartney. Music Arranger: Luciano Berio. Performer: Sophia Burgos. Orchestra: Symphony Orchestra Basel. Conductor: Ivor Bolton.
    • SONY.
    • 19075982072.
  • Luciano Berio

    Folk songs for mezzo-soprano and 7 players

    Performer: Cathy Berberian. Performer: Juilliard Ensemble. Conductor: Luciano Berio.
    • RCA.
    • 0902662540 2.
  • Karlheinz Stockhausen

    Gruppen for 3 orchestras

    Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Claudio Abbado. Conductor: Friedrich Goldmann. Conductor: Marcus Creed.
    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON.
    • 447-761-2.
  • Pierre Boulez

    Pli selon pli, portrait de Mallarme

    Performer: 大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Pierre Boulez.
    • ERATO.
    • 2564657947.
  • Luciano Berio

    Laborintus II (Homage to Dante) for narrator,singers,instr ens & elec sounds

    Performer: Ensemble Musique Vivante. Conductor: Luciano Berio.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
    • HMA 190764.
  • Claudio Monteverdi

    Orfeo: Plutone and Proserpina: Orpheus and Caronte's exchange

    Composer: Jasdeep Singh Degun. Conductor: Laurence Cummings. Performer: Chandra Chakraborty. Performer: Dean Robinson. Performer: Kaviraj Singh. Performer: Nicholas Watts. Performer: Orchestra of Opera North.
  • Luciano Berio

    Sinfonia for 8 solo voices and orchestra vers. 1969 [5 movements]

    Performer: Electric Phoenix. Performer: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Conductor: Riccardo Chailly.
    • DECCA.
    • 425 8322.
  • Luciano Berio

    Sinfonia for 8 solo voices and orchestra vers. 1969 [5 movements]

    Performer: Electric Phoenix. Performer: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Conductor: Riccardo Chailly.
    • DECCA.
    • 425 8322.
  • Luciano Berio

    Sinfonia for 8 solo voices and orchestra vers. 1969 [5 movements]

    Performer: Electric Phoenix. Performer: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Conductor: Riccardo Chailly.
    • DECCA.
    • 425 8322.
  • Gustav Mahler

    Des Knaben Wunderhorn vers. for voice & orch

    Performer: Christian Gerhaher. Performer: The Cleveland Orchestra. Conductor: Pierre Boulez.
    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON.
    • 477-9060.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Sonata in G major Op.96 for violin and piano

    Performer: James Ehnes. Performer: Andrew Armstrong.
    • ONYX.
    • 4209.
  • Gustav Mahler

    Symphony no. 2 in C minor (Resurrection) for soprano, alto, chorus and orchestra

    Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.
    • EMI.
    • 5099964736327.
  • Anton Bruckner

    Symphony no. 4 in E flat major (Romantic)

    Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Bernard Haitink.
    • BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER.
    • BPHR190281.
  • Luciano Berio

    Sinfonia for 8 solo voices and orchestra vers. 1969 [5 movements]

    Performer: Electric Phoenix. Performer: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Conductor: Riccardo Chailly.
    • DECCA.
    • 425 8322.
  • Igor Stravinsky

    The Rite of Spring

    Performer: Sim贸n Bol铆var Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Gustavo Dudamel.
    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON.
    • 477-8775.
  • Luciano Berio

    Sinfonia for 8 solo voices and orchestra vers. 1969 [5 movements]

    Performer: Electric Phoenix. Performer: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Conductor: Riccardo Chailly.
    • DECCA.
    • 425 8322.
  • Luciano Berio

    Sinfonia for 8 solo voices and orchestra vers. 1969 [5 movements]

    Performer: Electric Phoenix. Performer: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Conductor: Riccardo Chailly.
    • DECCA.
    • 425 8322.
  • John Oswald

    JOHN OSWALD: Urge

    Performer: John Oswald.
    • AVANT.
    • AVAN016.
  • The Avalanches

    THE AVALANCHES: Since I Left You

    • XL RECORDINGS.
    • XLCD 138.
  • Gustav Mahler

    Symphony no. 2 in C minor (Resurrection) for soprano, alto, chorus and orchestra

    Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.
    • EMI.
    • 5099964736327.

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  • Sun 5 Mar 2023 17:00
  • Fri 10 Mar 2023 16:30

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