Luciano Berio - Serenata I (1957) performed by Ensemble Avantgarde (1998)

Luciano Berio’s Serenata I Per Flauto E 14 Strumenti, performed by Ensemble Avantgarde in 1998. Serenata I is part of the Chamber Music composition in three sections for female voice, clarinet, cello and harp. It is a setting of three poems from the collection of poetry Chamber Music by James Joyce, whose work was to be a frequent source for Berio. The songs were composed in 1953, and show the influence of Luigi Dallapiccola with whom Berio had studied in 1952 at the Tanglewood Music Center. Ensemble Avantgarde is a chamber group based in Leipzig that consists of members from the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Orchestra of Central German Broadcasting (MDR), as well as local soloists and chamber musicians, including the Leipzig String Quartet. Led from its inception in 1989 by pianist Steffen Schleiermacher, who has steadily served as its director, the ensemble’s size varies according to the needs of its repertoire, which are core 20th century chamber works. The focus is on the essenti