Mariano Etkin

Flores blancas presents chamber and ensemble music by the Argentine composer Mariano Etkin, still little known in Europe. Eight works from 1992 to 2016, his late period, each focus in their own way on the physicality of sound and on the foundations of human existence. The album continues the series of Latin American composers that Ensemble Aventure has recorded for Wergo, and all the works are first recordings.

Etkin was born in Buenos Aires in 1943 and died in 2016. He studied with Guillermo Graetzer, Maurice Le Roux and Gerardo Gandini, then with Gottfried Michael Koenig in Utrecht and Luciano Berio at the Juilliard School. He was later professor of composition at the National University of La Plata. Ensemble Aventure plays in changing formations, among them clarinettist Andrea Nagy, trombonist Andrew Digby, cellist Beverley Ellis and pianist Akiko Okabe. The recordings were made on 28-29 November 2019 and 22-24 May 2020 in the Kammermusiksaal of Deutschlandfunk in Cologne, produced by Frank Kämpfer as a co-production with Deutschlandradio, with the support of the Fundación Música AntiquaNova.

The opening La naturaleza de las cosas (2001) for clarinet, trombone, cello and piano has a raw power, and its title fits Etkin's language well. His music celebrates the sensuous nature of sound, built from a small number of sound objects that appear and fade with a sense of both beauty and pain. The later works turn more densely lyrical and introspective. They gather around dreams in Sueños olvidados (2014) for string trio, blood in La sangre del cuerpo (1997) and, above all, tears in the three Estudios para lágrimas of 2009 and 2010. Two are for clarinet, horn and cello, the third for horn and double bass. The title piece (2006) for seven players lasts under four minutes. The earliest work, Abgesang Mambo (1992), is scored for seven winds and double bass.

The label describes this as an unflinchingly existential music that looks darkness in the eye and still opens its wings, trembling before it dissolves. The booklet, with texts in German and English, has notes by José Manuel Serrano, María Cecilia Villanueva and Wolfgang Rüdiger, the ensemble's bassoonist.

CD, Wergo WER 7406 2, released in 2023 in the Ensemble Aventure series, first recordings, total time 69'55".