The meditative style of Giacinto Scelsi, a composer of his own, is perfectly represented by the duo “Ko-Lho”. In this composition Scelsi went from a playful mode in which the two instruments are essentially staged to a virtual blending of the two into a single entity.

He tightly winds the parts together, usually keeping them within the range of a semi-tone or smaller, and both usually speak in monotone long-tones, actively punctuated with re-articulations and spatially modeled with color shifts.

The articulations cause brief ripples in the surface illusion, but the perceived unity of the sounds is so strong that it’s easier to believe that the sound is flowing from a single instrument than from a duo. It’s those decorative, poetic

nuancings of the sound that are the true life of the piece, the focus of the listener’s interest, guided by Scelsi’s intuitive inner rhythm. Quarter-tone glissandi, quarter-tones, stunning multiphonics, and detailed demands on the

specifics of technique, such as the width of the vibrato and subtle, dynamic cross-hatchings, obsessively turn the timbres over and over in constant change as objects of contemplation.

The same objects of enchantment we can find in Movio’s Incanto XIII. For this composition, Movio took his inspiration from the poem of Arturo Onofri which is referring to the same idea as of the idea of Scelsi: a beginning, a source, a

first memory.

Ecco la magia primordiale, che regge tuttora la nostra plastica e ritmica, fin dalle origini. e finalmente qui ne rinasce un primo ricordo, che si chiama noi stessi.

Arturo Onofri, La luce del tempo Here is the primordial magic, which still holds up our plastic and rhythmic, from the beginning. and finally here is reborn a first memory, which is called ourselves.

The saxophone duo manages to evoke esotericism and poetry in this work full of melodic and rhythmic interweaving. Movio’s center of sound is transforming itself through multiple layers and numerous manipulations such as bisbigliandos, airy sounds, growl, flutterzunge etc.

In this composition, Movio has opted for a changing formation in which one of the instrumentalists passes from the tenor to the soprano saxophone, to create a harmonic and timbral richness within the composition. The work is a single form, organized on several small movements in continuity solution.

Between the two compositions, a selection of three duos from Luciano Berio’s 34 Duetti per due Violini find its place.

These compositions stem from a conversation the composer had one evening with violinist and teacher Leonardo Pinzauti, in which Pinzauti lamented that «other than those of Bartók, there are not enough violin duets today.» Berio proceeded to write 34 duets in the following four years, and although these duets are clearly in Berio’s own style and idiom, there are strong references to the styles of the composers and friends to whom the duets are dedicated.

From Berio’s own words regarding the connection between the duos and the associated composer, “These Duetti are for me what the vers de circonstance were for Mallarmé: that is, they are not necessarily based on deep musical motivations, but rather connected by the fragile thread of daily occasions.” It’s in those daily occasions, in those friendship memories that the composer found

its inspiration from which music is generated.