Lucia
Ronchetti

PRESENTATION
The nocturne composed for Thomas Guggeis for the inaugural concert at the Frankfurter Museums-Gesellschaft, is an analytical study of the chiaroscuro effects created by Mahler in the Scherzo of the 7th symphony, focusing on his indication "Schattenhaft".
The spectral and existential waltz created by Mahler for this Scherzo, its position between the two Nocturnes, are the starting point for a reconstruction of the acoustic darkness evoked by the indication "Shadowy, Flowing", illuminated by a pulsating, obsessive, always subjacent agogic structure.
The spatial effects created by Mahler are emphasized by the distribution of the same ensemble of brass in the acoustic space, by the brutality of the rhythmic impulses and the contrasting emergence of  short melodic fragments from silence and their sudden disappearance.
The timbre instability given by the hyper stressed percussive accents migrating through the orchestra, generate a more spectral nocturnal waltz, which alternates strong bruits effects with moments of hieratic suspension entrusted to the off-stage piccolo, positioned within the audience space, like a deus-ex-machina.
The Notturno is a short, virtuoso, disconcerting sound carnival, an exercise where the conductor must create his own “sound action painting” in an extreme tempo, in cohesion and conspiracy with musicians, an orchestra of soloists, a multitude of overlapping solos.