Biography

W O R L D  P R E M I E R E
February  27th  2012  -  Palau  de  la  Música  Catalana,  Barcelona,  Spain  -  London
Philarmonic Orchestra - dir. Vladimir Jurowski.


N O T E S
“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.

 

Born in 1956 in Sabadell, Benet Casablancas studied music in Barcelona and Vienna. He is a graduate in philosophy and has a doctorate in musicology. He has published numerous musical studies on historical and analytic themes and was responsible for teaching academic subjects in various conservatories in Spain. In 2002, he assumed the leadership of the Conservatori Superior de Musica del Liceu. He is currently a visiting professor at the University of Alcala de Henares and educational director of the Jove Orquestra National de Catalunya.

His work, which include thirty parts (orchestral music for ensemble or vocal), was distinguished by numerous prizes and is played by famous performers (London Sinfonietta, Arditti Quartet, Ensemble contemporain de Montreal, Simfònica Orquestra de Barcelona i National de Catalunya ...).

In 2007, the Government of Catalonia awarded him the Premi Nacional de Musica.

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