LIPPARELLA celebrates ALDO CLEMENTI’S 100th anniversary

The aesthetics of Aldo Clementi (1925-2011) are based on the idea that Western music is in its final phase. The composer has no choice but to give musical expression to this extinction. Clementi often draws his sound material from a distant musical history, and his compositional technique also has its roots in Renaissance polyphony. Nevertheless, his works rarely give the impression of retrospective or historicising music when he radically changes the musical material in his compositions. His radical approach to form also has little to do with traditional patterns. In many works there is a continuous slowing down, through which the music gradually exhausts itself and finally comes to a standstill.

The Clementi portrait program performed by Ensemble Lipparella to commemorate his 100th anniversary, comprises a collection of pieces for open instrumentation, or works originally composed for modern instruments that have been adapted for the baroque instruments employed by Lipparella. This adaptation is consistent with the aesthetic principles espoused by Aldo Clementi.

Clementi had a strong connection to Sweden. For many years the family spent the summer months in their holiday home outside Stockholm, where many of his works were composed.