Music goes beyond all boundaries for Alexander Balanescu, a violinist of great virtuosity and composer, as well as founder (in 1987) of the Balanescu Quartet, one of the most interesting ensembles on the current music scene. The territories are deeply intertwined in his sound world, which does not contemplate limits between "cultured" and "popular", "light" and "noble", folklore tradition and contemporary investigation. Stranger to pre-established genres, and animated by a sensitivity and energy closer to those of a band than to a classical string group, the Balanescu Quartet has collaborated with composers similar to the current of minimalism such as Michael Nyman and Gavin Bryars, but also with very different musicians such as Ornette Coleman and David Byrne. Balanescu is a dynamic artist capable of addressing a large youth audience, as demonstrated by his concerts in the most important rock spaces, while his cult for the differentiation of languages has led him to write soundtracks for television and cinema. But what motivates him above all is the live performing arts, as demonstrated by the scores dedicated to choreographic and theatrical stagings. He himself, in the first person, expresses an intense performative energy, as evidenced (also) by his participation in Pippo Delbono's shows, with whom, in recent years, he has shared significant interdisciplinary paths, including, in particular, the show Amore e Carne.
Today Delbono is working a lot on body-voice and body-music experimentation, and the artistic meeting with Balanescu was one of the determining drivers of his most recent discoveries in this direction. In the concert that Balanescu brings to Rovereto with his quartet, scenic interventions by Delbono himself will be included, cut from the common adventure of Amore e Carne, where music, poetry, songs and dance become the tools of a journey in search of their respective identities.
Violin Alexander Balanescu and James Shenton
Purple Katie Wilkinson
Cello Nick Holland
Sound David Kent
duration 85 minutes without intermission