Shaoai Ashley Zhang plays Luciano Berio's "Sequenza IV"

Born into a family of musicians, Luciano Berio (1925–2003) was one of the musical pioneers of the twentieth century. Having completed his studies in Italy, Berio attended the Tanglewood Music Festival in 1952 to study with Luigi Dallapiccola. Berio also became an early champion of electronic music and, together with Bruno Maderna, co-founded the Studio di Fonologia Musicale in Milan. In 1962, Berio immigrated to the United States and taught composition at Mills College and the Juilliard School until his subsequent return to Italy a decade later. A prolific composer, his creative output includes numerous works for the stage, ensemble music, vocal music (from his collaboration with Kathy Barbarian), and works for solo instruments. Among his most notable works are Sequenzas, a series of fourteen works for various solo instruments that utilize extended techniques. The Sequenza IV for piano (1965–66/1993) features the sostenuto pedal, using the middle pedal of the piano to create subtle shadow sounds heard in the otherwise silent sections throughout the composition. Berio provides the following note for the work: Sequenza IV for piano can be considered as a journey of exploitation through the unknown and known regions of instrumental articulation and colour. Two independent harmonic sequences unfold simultaneously, at times interpenetration each other: a real one on the keyboard and a virtual one – so to speak – by means of the sustaining pedal. In Sequenza IV, as in the other Sequenzas, I elaborated a polyphony of actions, intended as an exposition and superimposition of different instrumental characters and gestures. Luciano Berio PianoSpheres – Explores music of our time. pianospheres.org