Exploring the relationship between death, love, and memory, this tender program features Extended Music Collective, Severine Ballon, Luca Sanzo, Carlotta Libonati, and Baldwin Giang performing works by Giang and David Lang. The program begins with GIang’s san clemente syndrome, which is inspired by the Basilica San Clemente’s unique palimpsestic architecture. Featuring ensemble and synchronized lighting, san clemente syndrome finds its starting point in a queer perspective on the basilica as expressed in André Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name. Further developing the theme of love is Giang’s ever thine, which meditates on the closing lines of Beethoven’s famous Immortal Beloved letter, creating a lush and timbrally inventive sound world.
A new arrangement of Lang’s Death Speaks, a breathtaking song cycle using only text as originally spoken by the character of death in Schubert’s lieder, will also receive its Italian premiere. In a way, these latter pieces could be understood as musical palimpsests written on top of Beethoven and Schubert, respectively.