The Brooklyn Rail: Turning Lead To Air: Music for Cello From Primo Levi

Can narrative prose occasion instrumental music? Though countless compositions have been based on literary texts, the process from words to music can be elusive.

A case in point was the world premiere of Luciano Chessa’s Piombo (Italian for lead)—from Primo Levi’s story of the same title—for solo cello, performed by the exceptional Frances-Marie Uitti on January 21 at Magazzino Italian Art in Cold Spring, New York, and the following week, at the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco. Chessa, now in mid-career, is an inordinately gifted composer, conductor, organist, visual artist, and music historian. His polyhedric talents have given him increasing visibility on both sides of the Atlantic. In New York, he has been heard more often as a conductor (leading the premiere of Julius Eastman’s Symphony No. II at Lincoln Center, and of Sylvano Bussotti’s music at Roulette). However, his own compositions undoubtedly deserve wider attention, and Piombo is an excellent introduction to his musical world. It is not so much a work for cello but rather one tailored to Uitti’s two-bows (played simultaneously with the right hand) technique.

Over the years, Uitti’s technique has inspired composers such as Giacinto Scelsi, Elliott Sharp, György Kurtág, Luigi Nono, and John Cage to write for her.