On November 1 in Rome (additional performances on 2 and 3), the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia with conductor Antonio Pappano will perform the world premiere of Fabio Nieder’s Danza lenta di C.S. fra gli specchi (C.S.’s slow dance between mirrors). The piece, commissioned by the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for its symphonic cycle dedicated to Ludwig van Beethoven, will accompany the First and Third Symphony.

Commenting on the work, Fabio Nieder writes:

“It’s a slow and heavy dance in 9 impulses: a triple waltz in canonical form that the mysterious character C.S. dances for us. What’s involved are cycles that repeat and that return like those of Nietzsche. The listener finds again in the repetition of the cycles situations already heard in previous cycles, but each time they are immersed in a different light. In fact, what repeats are temporal matrices that recall the passing of the months and the seasons: springs repeat in a similar manner but at the same time they are always different from one another. About half way through the piece,three fluttering piccolos pop out standing in contrast to the heaviness of the orchestra. These also act as a mirror of the orchestra.

Calls of the piccolos are repeated by the orchestra but much more slowly and gropingly. The piccolos seem to be unhappy with the outcome of the repetition of their calls so they try to 'talk' to the orchestra and teach it the correct way to perform them. The orchestra repeats the calls again, ever faster… Finally, in the course of the long arch of this dance the heaviness and the timbric obscurity of the orchestra attenuates and becomes more and more transparent… The long compositional process of the ‘Danza lenta’ concludes in a marbled 'wall' of sounds with extremely potent dynamics. This 'wall' represents the last cycle where we can still recognise the signals of the preceding cycles. The enigmatic presence of a bell marking the hours is constant: nine chimes of a bell coming from some invisible bell-tower tell us 'the precise time'. What does the bell mean? And what do the nine chimes mean?

There are many enigmas in this score. But music, in its usual abstract manner, furnishes us with the solutions to the enigmas; solutions that, however, elude any verbal expression. Words here fall silent. The music instead continues to dance the DANZA LENTA di C.S. FRA GLI SPECCHI.”