Barrie Gavin on Luciano Berio's Sinfonia

Watching Barrie Gavin's documentaries on music

Barrie Gavin died at the end of 2024 at the age of 89. I knew him because I was introduced by Jonathan Harvey in 2012.

Barrie gave me a box of his work, which I have digitised and stored at the Keep, University of Sussex.

I watched his film about Sinfonia, by Berio, because I recalled that this was an important work for a former Sussex music department colleague, David Osmond Smith.

The one hour film is elegantly in two halves. First there are commentaries by Berio himself, and by Simon Rattle, and the musicians, especially the singers, Electric Phoenix. Then a complete performance of all five movements, televised experimentally to draw the attention to gestures, form and orchestration. Images of composers and writers quoted in the orchestral labyrinth and swirling sonic design float across the screen.

Rattle remarks 'it's a piece about writing, about writing a symphony'. Berio says, it's a journey through harmony, with concrete echoes from the history of music. Further he says it's a search for connection in a fragmented world, a different way of thinking and living, which possibly should not be money but of a 'different nature'.

Remarkable television. Intellectual and yet crystal clear. Visionary and experimental.  Rather hard to imagine now.