On our blog, our contemporary composers present their favorite works from our catalogs. This time: Ricordi London composer Jonathan Cole writes about Luigi Nono's Prometeo.

"In 2006 I reached a crises point in my work - I was no longer stimulated by the ideas which were filling my head. I felt the necessity to stop immediately, only starting again when and if I could reclaim that vital urge to compose which had taken me prisoner as a child.

In the two years which followed I got my head stuck into the professional life of teaching but also listened to an enormous amount of music – really listened intensely in a way I had never listened before, with groups of people and alone. Luigi Nono’s later music had not been played much in London at this time and initially I listened to Quando Stanno Morendo and Guai ai gelidi Mostri, often late at night and in the dark.

Gradually and magically performances started taking place in London. Irvine Arditti performed La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica Futura, Oliver Knussen programmed two concerts of Nono’s work with the London Sinfonietta which included Con Luigi Dallapiccola and then in 2007 at the end of a festival of Nono’s music I experienced the British premiere of Prometeo.

During rehearsals I spoke to Diego Masson who was directing the performances: for him also this was something utterly extraordinary and life changing. The qualities of this music which shook me to my core are deeply mysterious and could never be described accurately through my own words but I sensed an often painful struggle to create something deep rooted and personally complex which can then emerge utterly direct and spontaneous. I was drawn to an almost prehistoric sound world, archetypal yet magnificently human.

I was faced with a brutally naked harmonic simplicity with no slick surfaces to soften the blows. Above all this is music which requires a level of listening which forces me to face my inner self and as such, I am changed by the experience.

 Since that time Luigi Nono and John Cage have become the silent guides for me and my music – two very different creators yet both prepared to sacrifice themselves through their devastating exploration of extremes."