Luciano Berio, restaurador: análise de Rendering per orchestra (1988-90)

Abstract

By Rendering, Berio intended to restore Schubert’s tenth symphony, based on the sketches of that symphony that kept Schubert busy in his final days. This paper examines Berio’s work on Schubertian musical text, uncovering the productive commitment of the Italian composer to the 20th century avant-garde art and, at the same time, his references to important works in music tradition. The composer avoids a fanciful intervention and follows the “lines of the modern restoration of frescoes that aims at reviving the old colours without however trying to disguise the damage that time has caused” (BERIO, 1989). Our guiding hypothesis suggests that Berio’s writing methods are implicitly committed to the principles of Cesare Brandi’s Theory of Restoration (1963), who is an icon of the Italian critical restoration. The analyses of the methods of composition of Rendering first movement reveal the work on orchestration and counterpoint on the one hand, aiming at refreshing the colors of Schubert, and, on the other, the intervention in the gaps between the fragments by means of a musical cement typical of Berio. KEYWORDS Luciano Berio, Rendering, musical analysis, restoration, Cesare Brandi.