The Faustian principle describes the restlessness of the creative mind. It is the desire not only to understand the world, but to penetrate its very core. In this way we encounter Luca Francesconi: not as a practitioner of black magic, but as a musical genius. His aesthetic is shaped by a constant process of searching, listening and experimenting. Layer after layer is peeled away to reach the very physicality of naked sound.

The piece Rest is dedicated to his friend and teacher Luciano Berio. It is much more than a tribute. Far from being a quotation or a paraphrase, it opens a space of memory in which a shared cultural and musical language forms a living architecture of dialogue.

In Duende, the composer takes us on a journey into the demonic – not in the sense of evil, but as a primal creative force. Rising from the depths, it ignites the fire of passion without which there can be no art.

Luca Francesconi is one of the leading composers of today. He has written more than one hundred works ranging from solo pieces to operas, often involving the use of new technologies. His music has been commissioned and performed by the world’s most prestigious musical institutions, including La Scala, BBC, the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, the Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Gewandhaus, RAI, IRCAM, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Radio France, the Opéra de Paris, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, all major German radio orchestras, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Musikfabrik, the Berlin State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, and many others.

Born in 1956 in Milan, he studied piano, conducting, and composition with Azio Corghi and continued his studies with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio, working with the latter from 1981 to 1984 on several projects. In 1977, he studied jazz at the Berklee College in Boston. His work on the music for a comprehensive RAI documentary on voodoo in 1976 inspired Francesconi to undertake an in-depth study of non-Western musical concepts. He has collaborated with some of the leading figures in the music world, including Muti, Chailly, Pappano, Eötvös, Mälkki, Barenboim, Abbado, Arditti, Grau-Schumacher, Thibaudet, Rana, Trilok Gurtu, Nézet-Séguin, Salonen, Rundel, Lubman, Queyras, Brunello, Pahud, Josefowicz, and Kopatchinskaja.

Francesconi has written nine operas, some of which include multimedia elements. His opera “Quartett,” commissioned by La Scala in 2011, has been performed 85 times worldwide, both in the original La Fura dels Baus production and in seven new productions.

In 1990, he founded AGON, a centre for music technology research in Milan. He has served as artistic director of the Venice Biennale and the Oslo Ultima Festival. For forty years, he has taught composition at various conservatories in Italy and Scandinavia and led masterclasses worldwide, including in Japan, China, the USA, and Moscow. Francesconi has received numerous awards, including the Kranichstein Prize at Darmstadt, the Siemens Prize, the Abbiati Critics’ Prize, the Grand Prix du Disque, the Royal Philharmonic Society Award, the Feltrinelli Prize of the Accademia dei Lincei, and the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.