Listen to the sound essay (Link to the Centro Studi Luciano Berio website)
A project by ITER Research Ensemble in collaboration with the Centro Studi Luciano Berio (2023–2025), initiated on the occasion of the Festival Luciano Berio, Radicondoli 2023: “Dialoghi”
The sound essay explores the presence of the Sicilian folk song E si fussi pisci in the human and artistic biography of Luciano Berio, blending narration, recordings of published and unpublished pieces, fixed media from archival materials, and a distinctive original sound design. A listening guide clarifies the various references to documents and sources used in the track.
Text by Giovanni Cestino, with quotations from works, writings, and interviews by Luciano Berio
Music by Alberto Favara, Giorgio Federico Ghedini, and Luciano Berio
Choral connections by Gioele Onida
Oreste Bossini narrator
with sections voiced by Emanuele Cristini and Giovanni Cestino
Alessio Giuricin tenor soloist
Paolo Ghiglione piano
ITER Research Ensemble
Giovanni Cestino conductor
Emanuele Cristini sound engineer, editing, and mastering
Alessandro Fadalti recording assistant
Recorded on March 22–23, 2025 in Cremona at La Camerata di Cremona, and on May 14, 2025 in Milan at musicadinsieme.
Acknowledgements: Angela Ida De Benedictis, Nicola Scaldaferri, Giulia Maria Taccagni, Federico Orsi, Marco Fracassi and the collaborators of La Camerata di Cremona, Alessandra Paciotti, Riccardo Pintus. We thank the LEAV – AudioVisual Ethnography Laboratory of the University of Milan for technical support. For the use of unpublished archival materials, we also thank the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel and the Berio Estate.
The title of this sound essay originates from a conversation with (and an intuition by) Giulia Maria Taccagni.
Project thumbnail: Luciano Berio, E si fussi pisci, reworking for solo viola written for Aldo Bennici, 1981, manuscript, Paul Sacher Stiftung, Allgemeine Sammlung, Fonds Aldo Bennici (courtesy); also reproduced on the Centro Studi Luciano Berio website.