Abierto València LaVAC
The programme presented by saxophonist Xelo Giner brings together a series of micro-pieces conceived as concentrated essences, each shaped by divergent conceptual elements while maintaining a common thread. Each piece succeeds in encapsulating and condensing moments, memories, and sensations, conveying the essence of emotions in their different states. Xelo Giner presents this programme as a tribute to composer György Kurtág on the occasion of his 100th anniversary. The connection established between them during their two encounters in Budapest (2016 and 2019) has allowed her to approach the spiritual universe that nourishes his musical thought. The composer invited the performer to adapt his compositions Signs, Games and Messages (1997–2001) for saxophone. The selected repertoire comprises short pieces by György Kurtág alongside the world premieres of works by Inés Bádalo, Carlos David Perales, Joan Gómez, and Stefano Scarani.
György Kurtàg (1926 – ) Nativité (2020)
Saxofón alto solo
Inés Bádalo (1989 – ) Dé Coll/Age II (2026) *
Saxofón Soprano, cuenco tibetano y movimientos
György Kurtàg (1926 – ) …ein Sappho-Fragment (2019)
Carlo D. Perales (1979 – ) 5 Haikus (2026) *
Saxofón Soprano y electrónica, cuenco Tibetano y Gong.
György Kurtàg (1926 – ) Hommage à Elliot Cárter (1998)
Joan Gómez Alemany (1990 – ) Dans la feuillée, écrin vert taché d’or… (2026) *
Saxofón soprano y electrónica en vivo
György Kurtàg (1926 – ) ..ein Brief aus der Ferne an Úrsula (2014)
Stefano Scarani (1966 – ) Children Without heaven (2026) *
Saxofón soprano y electrónica en vivo
Carlo D. Perales (1979 – ) Sefarad I, II (2019)
Saxofón soprano y electrónica
(*) ESTRENO MUNDIAL
The pieces from Kurtág’s Signs, Games and Messages (1997–2001) form a kind of final composition notebook, made up of miniatures that are almost always reflective and that embody many of the essential elements of Kurtág’s aesthetic ideas. The emotional weight accumulated in each of them reaches our ears with the appropriate degree of “naturalness and expression” (Kurtág, 2016), turning them into small, brief poetic brushstrokes interspersed throughout the concert.
To these minimal musical messages we should add the piece written for the performer and composer Inés Bádalo. The work Dé-coll/age emerged from the influence of Wolf Vostell’s thought, the technique of décollage, and the ideas of the Fluxus movement, transferring to the musical sphere concepts originally developed in the visual arts. Vostell argued that artists should offer a critical response to the reality of their time, marked by disorientation, contradictions, misunderstandings, and social tensions. This idea becomes the conceptual axis of the work, understanding artistic creation as a reflection on the complexity of the contemporary world. The influence of Fluxus reinforces its interdisciplinary conception. In keeping with the spirit of the movement, music transcends the purely sonic realm and incorporates the voice, bodily movement, and chance as inseparable elements of the artistic discourse. The work was premiered at the Contemporary Music Cycle of the Vostell Museum by saxophonist Xelo Giner.
The following evocative pieces proposed by composer Carlos D. Perales are a selection of Haikus adapted for soprano saxophone. They likewise seek to express the contrast between the fleeting nature of a sensation and its resonance across the different strings of sensitivity and memory.
The great French poet of the late nineteenth century inspires the Valencian composer in the creation of an exquisite piece entitled “Dans la feuillée, écrin vert taché d’or…” (“In the foliage, a green casket flecked with gold…”), the opening line of Arthur Rimbaud’s poem “Tête de faune.” The work, composed by Joan Gómez Alemany and dedicated to Xelo Giner, explores the sonic intersection between the wild vitality of nature and contemporary instrumental technique. Through a poetic and intimate dialogue, the saxophone unfolds a melodic line that emulates the audacity and erratic movement of the leaves and the startled faun, while the electronics, constructed from transformed natural sounds, envelop the instrument in a soundscape. The structure of the work seeks to capture that fleeting moment in which the bucolic becomes mystery, and the forest of sounds becomes a sleeping eternity.
Children Without Heaven is a work that pays tribute to all children without a heaven and is dedicated especially to Hind Rajab and to all children without peace. In it, composer Stefano Scarani proposes an interactive fusion, managing live audio through the electronic devices conceived by the composer himself and generating feedback between the two performers: saxophonist and composer.
Sefarad is the place name that Jewish tradition has identified with the Iberian Peninsula since the beginning of the Common Era (סְפָרַד), its use in modern Hebrew now being reserved for present-day Spain. Sephardic music originated among Spanish Jews settled in Castile and Aragon, who adapted popular Castilian songs until their expulsion during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, resulting in a fusion of Arab and Christian musical traditions. This work represents expulsion, refuge, secrecy, and flight; the sound of silent lament. It evokes the essence of love, the canticle, the song of death and the elevated practice of synagogue music, the intimate space of the family home, the romance and ancient epic, the perpetual memory of legend, and the fragrance of times long past.
Xelo Giner
