Epifanie (Berio)
Epifanie is a musical composition for female voice and large orchestra in twelve movements by the Italian composer Luciano Berio.
In Italian an epifania indicates a sudden spiritual manifestation. Berio composed his Epifanie between 1960 and 1963, and published a revised version in 1965. It consists of seven short orchestral pieces, and five vocal pieces. Berio stipulates the possibility of performing these in ten different sequences. When the American premiere of Epifanie took place in Chicago on July 23, 1967, he said:
The score calls for an unusually large orchestra: 16 woodwinds; 6 horns, 4 trumpets and 4 trombones plus tuba, full strings, including three violin sections, and a percussion section calling for a number of performers who address themselves not only to glockenspiel, celesta, vibraphone and marimba but also to spring coils, tamtam, tom-tom, temple blocks, wood blocks, bongos, timpani, cowbells, tubular bells, claves, guiro, censerros, cymbals, snare drum, tambourine, etc.
The BBC Proms premiere was given in the Royal Albert Hall, London on 8 August 1986, by Elizabeth Laurence and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Edward Downes.
