Salvatore Sciarrino’s music at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn: actualization of the classical heritage in conteporary art projects

Abstract

Problem statement. Contemporary art space creates special conditions for the functioning of the classical musical heritage. The principle of the classics, which results in the formation of certain ideas about the criteria of the “reference” work and the ways of interaction with it undergoes a radical transformation. The turn of the XX and XXI centuries became a time of experiments, including experimental dialogues of the contemporary artists with the classical artistic artifacts. The relevance of the study is due to the growing scientific interest in the specifics of the implementation of contemporary art projects. The scientific novelty of the article is connected with the attempt to analytically comprehend the process of actualization of classical musical works in the conditions of the modern artistic environment. Theoretical Background. In the context of our study, the views of P. Sloterdijk (1986) on the autonomy impossibility of the classical text and the study of U. Eco (1986), focused on the dynamism of the artistic universe of the postmodern era and the multiplicity of its possible interpretations, are recognized as the most essential. Objectives. The purpose of this study is to reveal the specifics of the actualization of classical heritage in contemporary art projects (based on “Quando ci risvegliamo” by S. Sciarrino, presented at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, 2015). Results and Discussion. The specifics of creative rethinking of L. van Beethoven’s works, done by contemporary European composers (S. Sciarrino, H. Dufourt, V. Tarnopolsky, B. Lang, E. Poppe) during the European cycle of the Beethoven Festival (2015–2019) are analyzed. The content of the multi-layered work “Quando ci risvegliamo” by S. Sciarrino’s is revealed as it is caused by the allusions to Fantasia for piano, soloists, choir and orchestra Op. 80 by L. van Beethoven and the symbolic drama “Når vi døde vågner” (“When We Dead Awaken”) by H. Ibsen. The interaction between the texts takes place on a structural, symbolic and semantic levels. The space of silence on the imaginary border of sleep and awakening, modeled by S. Sciarrino in “Quando ci risvegliamo”, builds cross-cultural connotations, appealing at the same time to the work of the German composer and the Norwegian playwright. Conclusions. The conclusion on the actualization of the classical text in the conditions of the modern art environment at the expense of employment of other classical texts is made. It is noted that the appropriate level of cultural training and experience in perception of artistic texts, expected from the hypothetical recipients, should allow them to perceive the cultural and artistic connotations of the new work, which are included in the hypertext of postmodernism.