The electroacoustic work Schwarzstrasse by Jay Schwartz will be premiered in the outdoor spaces of the Fondazione Merz, at the end of the Glissandi concert.

The event is part of Barca Solare. Ascolti dal Mediterraneo, the series of musical events presented by the Turin Philharmonic Orchestra in collaboration with Fondazione Merz and supported by Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo. This itinerary is a reflection on listening introduced by some pieces from the twentieth-century repertoire played live by the musicians of the Turin Philharmonic Orchestra, in which the integration of music and auditory enjoyment performed in different spaces creates a fascinating sensory experience.

Martino Maina cello
Johann Sebastian Bach, extracts from Cello Suite n. 6 in D Major BWV 1012
Paul Hindemith, extracts from Sonata per violoncello solo op. 25 n. 3

Niccolò Susanna flute
Claude Debussy Syrinx 
André Jolivet  extracts from Incantations 
Edgard Varèse Density 21.5 

Rossana Bribò percussions
Alexej Gerassimez Asventuras for snare drum solo
Emmanuel Séjourné Attraction for marimba, vibraphone and tape

Admission subject to availability and included in the cost of the current exhibition ticket. For reservation: biglietteria@fondazionemerz.org – T. 011 19719437

The third edition of the Mario Merz Prize music section comes to a close with a concert which will premiere winner Jay Schwartz’s new composition. The piece will be played by the Turin Philharmonic Orchestra and by a group of young musicians, the Rosin Octet (Tilburg, Netherlands), during a concert which will include music by Edvard Grieg and Henri Casadeus.

Credo, Music for Orchestra VII presents the characteristics of Schawrtz’s poetics. It employs aspects of the physics of sound and utilises tonality in the context of the physics of organic harmony, while making use of the overtone spectrum, microtonality, and glissandi in a poetic context with a captivating sensuous drawing power, and an unabashed emotional disposition.

Accompanying Jay Schwartz’s composition, the Turin Philharmonic Orchestra proposes a programme dedicated to the fifth Platonic solid, the dodecahedron, conveying through music the ether, the classical element that this geometric form has been associated with.

JAY SCHWARTZ Credo, Music for orchestra VII

HENRI CASADESUS Concert in C minor for violas and string instruments

EDWARD GRIEG Two melodies op. 53

EDWARD GRIEG Holberg Suite 40

Concertmaster: Sergio Lamberto

Viola Soloist: Lara Albesano

The concert, organized by Fondazione Merz in collaboration with Biblioteca civica musicale “Andrea Della Corte”, is held within the setting of the eighteenth-century Villa La Tesoriera and it is conducted by Willy Merz.

Annachiara Gedda, Perspectives III

Mauro Lanza, Tutto ciò che è solido si dissolve nell’aria

Filippo Perocco, Come dura pietra

Robert HP Platz, Wunderblock

Jay Schwartz, Music for Five Stringed Instruments II Ensemble

Musicians: Niccolò Susanna, flute – Gianluca Calonghi, clarinet – Paolo Grappeggia, double bass – Andrea Rebaudengo, piano – Lorenzo Guidolin, percussions

Quartetto Maurice: Georgia Privitera, violin – Laura Bertolino, violin – Francesco Vernero, viola – Aline Privitera, cello

The finalists composers, Annachiara Gedda (Italy 1986), Mauro Lanza (France 1975), Filippo Perocco (Italy 1972), Robert HP Platz (Germany 1958), Jay Schwartz (Germany 1965), were selected by a jury composed of Giampaolo Pretto (flautist and main conductor of the Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino), Stefano Pierini (composer and lecturer at the Centro di Formazione Musicale in Turin) and Philip Samartzis (sound-designer and lecturer at the University of Melbourne).

The public can express its preference listening to the recording of the concert, available in a dedicated space in the Fondazione Merz, and on the Mario Merz Prize website.

The public vote is added to the votes cast by Jury composed of Dieter Ammann (composer), Thomas Demenga (cellist and composer), Alexander Lonquich (pianist) and Willy Merz.