Luigi Nono

Luigi Nono was born in Venice in 1924, trained first as a lawyer, and became one of the leading figures of the European musical avant-garde after World War II. A lifelong communist, he believed new music and radical politics belonged together, and he took his work seriously enough to present it in factories as well as concert halls. In 1955 he married Nuria Schoenberg, daughter of the composer Arnold Schoenberg.

His music can be severe, but its motivation is human. Il canto sospeso, from 1956, sets fragments of farewell letters written by European resistance fighters condemned to death, sung by chorus and soloists with orchestra. In his late years the music turned inward: quiet, spacious pieces, often using live electronics, shaped by the echoing sound world of his native Venice. He died there in 1990.

Start with Il canto sospeso, then, when you want something stranger and more intimate, La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura, for solo violin and tape.