Description: In his 1993-1994 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, Luciano Berio skillfully explores the whirlpools and eddies of musical time, the intricate interplay between the moment-to-moment experience of music and the idioms, traditions, and histories that form our musical memory.
Brief description: Luciano Berio (1925-2003) was an Italian experimental composer whose work spanned opera, symphony, and electronic music. An honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music, Berio is best known for his 1969 composition Sinfonia and his fourteen Sequenze, solo works that each explore the possibilities of a different instrument.
Review Quotes: These texts are a long way from the multilayered, often abrasive allusiveness of Berio's best compositions, yet even he was able to go some way to justifying the claim that a composer can still, occasionally, be the best commentator on his own works.--Arnold Whittall "Musical Times"