Sonora Festival: Twins in the Sky and on Earth

Riccardo Nova
Rudra Mantra, Kunti Mantra e Combattimento
(from Mahābhārata opera project)
for harp, percussions, electric guitar, electronics

Icarus Ensemble

Gilda Gianolio, harp
Michele Di Modugno, percussions
Francesco Pedrazzini, percussions
Giorgio Genta, electric guitar

After the first event titled “Double Look,” featuring Conductus founder Marcello Fera on violin, in the second concert, titled “Twins in Heaven and Earth,” Ensemble Icarus of Reggio Emilia offered a wide selection of the Maharabata, a sacred Vedic text set to music by contemporary Milanese composer Riccardo Nova, which the group’s percussionist Francesco Pedrazzini and guitarist Giorgio Genta discuss in the report.

At Palais Mamming, Ensemble Icarus performed three fragments of the Mahabarata, the Rudra Mantra, the Kunti Mantra and the fight between the two brothers, where the percussionists perform in an acceleration that verges on virtuosity, in a confrontation between Indian rhythmic tradition and contemporary music.