Né en 1956 à Sabadell, Benet Casablancas a fait ses études musicales à Barcelone et à Vienne. Il est licencié de philosophie et docteur en musicologie. Il a publié de nombreuses études musicales sur des thèmes historiques et analytiques et a été responsable de l’enseignement de matières théoriques dans différents conservatoires espagnols. En 2002, il a assumé la direction du Conservatori Superior de Musica del Liceu. Il est actuellement professeur invité de l’Université d’Alcala de Henares et directeur pédagogique de la Jove Orquestra National de Catalunya.
Son oeuvre, qui compte une trentaine de pièces (musique orchestrale, pour ensemble ou vocale), a été distinguée par de nombreux prix et est jouée par des interprètes prestigieux (London Sinfonietta, Arditti Quartet, Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, Orquestra Simfonica de Barcelona i National de Catalunya…).
En 2007, le Gouvernement de Catalunya lui a octroyé le Premi Nacional de Musica.
WORLD PREMIERE
February 27th 2012 - Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona, Spain - London
Philarmonic Orchestra - dir. Vladimir Jurowski.
NOTES
“A dungeon horrible, on all sides round,
As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames
No light; but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes“
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I
Benet Casablancas was inspired by a passage of John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and its further interpretation by the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa in order to name one of his key works “Darkness Visible”.
The versatile use of the orchestra as well as the great timbral and textural differentiation may prevail as structure to this work. Moreover, the way Benet Casablancas formulates the harmonic thought and its involvement in the development of his discourse seem to be a more crucial characteristic of “Darkness Visible”.
This work deepens into the exploration of the unfathomable mystery of the night. It is conceived as a nocturne of big proportions that goes near quiet and rarefied atmospheres, but is punctually disturbed by more agitated passages, suddenly illuminated by gleams of light.
NOTICE
The Dark Backward of Time, a piece for orchestra, was created on January 14th, 2006 in Barcelona by l'Orquestra Simfonica de Barcelona i National de Catalunya, which commissioned the work, under the direction of Ernest Martinez Izquierdo.
The title, The Dark Backward of Time ("the dark depths of the abyss of time") is taken from Shakespeare's La Tempête, a writer who has often influenced Casablancas as is shown in, among others, les Sept Scènes from Hamlet (1989) for narrator and chamber orchestra.
"The Dark Backward of Time" has three main sections that follow one another without interruption. Impulsivity and the fiery intensity of extreme sections, just tempered by brief scherzandi interludes, contrast sharply with the slow central part, which gives shape to a large stagnation, as if time itself - and here the sense of work makes sense - wants to be suspended. The author incorporates in this section the quote from one of his early compositions (the second of his Dues peces, for piano, 1977), performed by the oboe, supported by an extremely scarce orchestre that consists of a static landscape animated by gentle rocking movements, which will be modified by various processes of harmonic condensation to extinction in a high intangible register. With the return of the original tempo, the discours gets more imperative, and rushes to a tension that culminates in a powerful brass chorale, to make way for a serene and introspective epilogue which leads directly to the conclusion that recuperates the full and grave character of the beginning." (Benet Casablancas)
Duration: about 17 minutes