1.
Orchestra [0:00]
2. Je
regardais les trois arbres (Marcel Proust) [4:17]
3. Orchestra [6:44]
4. Las siete cuerdas (Antonio
Machado) [9:26]
5. Orchestra
[10:50]
6. Orchestra
with spoken parts [11:34]
7. A girl
stood before him (James Joyce) [14:50]
8. Orchestra and recitative
[17:49]
Se scrivi una poesia
(Edoardo Sanguineti)
9.
Orchestra [20:30]
10. Cette expression de surprise (Claude Simon)
[23:41]
11. Was sind das für Zeiten? (Bertolt Brecht) [25:37]
12. Orchestra [26:58]
Cathy Berberian, mezzosoprano
ORF-Symphonieorchester, Leif Segerstam
Live recording : Salzburger Festspiele, August 19th
1974
In Italian an epifania (plural: epifanie, with both
forms accented on the second "i") indicates a sudden spiritual
manifestation (See: Epiphany). Berio composed his Epifanie between 1960 and
1963, and published a revised version in 1965. It consists of seven short
orchestral pieces, and five vocal pieces. Berio stipulates the possibility of performing
these in ten different sequences. When the American premiere of Epifanie took
place in Chicago on July 23, 1967, he said:
Epifanie is, in essence, a cycle of orchestral pieces
into which a cycle of vocals pieces has been interpolated. The two 'cycles' can
be combined together in various ways; they can also be performed separately.
The texts of the vocal pieces have been taken from Proust (À l'ombre des jeunes
filles en fleurs), Antonio Machado (Nuevas Canciones), Joyce (A Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses), Edoardo Sanguineti (Triperuno), Claude
Simon (La route des Flandres), and Brecht (An die Nachgeborenen).
The significant connection between the vocals pieces
can thus appear in different lights according to their position in the instrumental
development. The chosen order will emphasize the apparent heterogeneity of the
texts or their dialectic unity. The texts are arranged in such a way as to
suggest a gradual passage from a lyric transfiguration of reality (Proust,
Machado, Joyce) to a disenchanted acknowledgment of things (Simon; for this
text the voice speaks and becomes gradually nullified by the orchestra).
Lastly, the words of Bertolt Brecht, which have nothing to do with the epiphany
of words and visions. They are the cry of regret and anguish with which Brecht
warns us that often it is necessary to renounce the seduction of words when
they sound like an invitation to forget our links to a world constructed by our
own acts.
The score calls for an unusually large orchestra: 16
woodwinds; 6 horns, 4 trumpets and 4 trombones plus tuba, full strings,
including three violin sections, and a percussion section calling for a number
of performers who address themselves not only to glockenspiel, celesta,
vibraphone and marimba but also to spring coils, tamtam, tom-tom, temple
blocks, wood blocks, bongos, timpani, cowbells, tubular bells, claves, guiro,
censerros, cymbals, snare drum, tambourine, etc.
Reference: backsleeve RCA 1967 record
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