“Alla ricerca di luce e chiarezza”. L’epistolario Helmut Lachenmann – Luigi Nono (1957-1990) (“In Search of Light and Clarity. The Helmut Lachenmann–Luigi Nono Correspondence”), edited by Angela Ida De Benedictis and Ulrich Mosch, brings together over 121 documents – letters, postcards, telegrams, etc. – exchanged over around thirty years by two leading figures on the contemporary music scene. This latest book in the “Luigi Nono Archive Studies” series charts the development of an unusually intense and important artistic and human relationship. Having begun with teacher-student exchanges, their relationship continually developed over time, despite disagreements, long silences and momentary misunderstandings. From the initial discussions on composing technique and music poetics in the 1950s and ‘60s to letters with a rare emotional intensity in the 1980s, what emerges from their correspondence is the same passion for “making” and “experiencing” music and a deeply felt commitment shared by both men, albeit with at times different results and emotions.

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