(ULTIMO TORSO)
dedicated to Thomas Friedli
(for A- and B-Clarinet)

Zurich/Intragna 1991
performing time 9'45
transposition notated

In 1994, one year after the first recording, Torso X (Ultimo Torso) for clarinet A and B was premièred in concert on the occasion of a comprehensive exhibition of the artist Evi Kliemand in Locarno (Pinacoteca Casa Rusca, see catalogue). The „Concerto straordinario in omaggio al compositore Ermano Maggini (1931-1991) – un concerto in collaborazione con la Pinacoteca di Casa Rusca, la Fondazione Ermano Maggini Intragna e la Fondazione 'Musica Ticinese'“ took place on 12 May 1994 in the nearby 'Sala della Sopracenerina'. The members of the Trio Zemlinsky, Thomas Friedli, clarinet, Annick Gautier, violoncello, and Patricia Thomas, piano, played three works by Ermano Maggini: 'Atem', Canto I-III, Torso VIII (dedicated to the Trio Zemlinsky), and Thomas Friedli performed Torso X (Ultimo Torso) for solo clarinet.
On 14 May 1994, Fernando de Carli wrote in his review of the concert (here translated):
“Ermano Maggini's music contains a profound introspective dimension, which, however, does not lead to the suffocation of space, but rather leads to the development of an inner spatiality. The introspective dimension of the composer's music is developed, above all, at the level of research: in fact, his music reveals a not inconsiderable amount of reflective work, even though it ultimately appears very natural. While respecting a clear dramaturgy - especially in the Trio which is also the most extensive work among those heard - Maggini succeeds in creating a meditative dimension in his music, so that it appears out of time, without beginning and without end, his compositions seem to be a moment of a hidden path in his past and future, something that emerges from a great sea, which is the inner world„.
Two months before his death, in October 1991, Ermano Maggini had completed the composition Torso X for clarinetto in la e si-b, dedicating this work to the clarinettist Thomas Friedli.

In the course of the posthumous first recording of those works which the composer had dedicated to the interpreters of the Trio Zemlinsky during his creative years, Torso X was recorded for CD by the clarinettist Thomas Friedli in the Radio Studio Lugano on 2 July 1992 in collaboration with the Fondazione Ermano Maggini Intragna and Radio Televisione Svizzera Italiana RTSI Rete 2 (see CD 1993 Jecklin, Szene Schweiz, JS 295-2). In addition to Torso X for clarinet, the CD also features the Trio Torso VIII for clarinet, violoncello and piano, as well as 'Atem' for piano solo from 1976 and the works for violoncello solo. Canto XVII (in its first version) for piano and flute, composed in 1987 and transposed for A- and B-clarinet by Ermano Maggini in 1991, could not be recorded in the course of those recordings and is still missing in its transposed form on CD today. In 1993, however, Canto XVII for piano and flute was recorded in its original form by Patrizia Thomas and Werner Zumsteg together with other works (see CD Jecklin JS 311-2, 1993/1995).
The scores for both versions are now available as Werkausgabe 5, Edition Müller&Schade, Bern M&S 2073. The editions annotated by Evi Kliemand will appear successively in this series, published by the Fondazione Ermano Maggini.

Ermano Maggini's entire compositional output ends with the work for A and B clarinet, Torso X, apart from the unfinished work HIOB from 1991. Maggini composed Torso X for solo clarinet in Intragna during the summer of 1991; it was to be his last summer. The handover to the clarinettist Thomas Friedli, to whom it is dedicated, took place in Zurich in the following October. As a member of the Trio Zemlinsky, Thomas Friedli had long since become familiar with Ermano Maggini's musical language. The author of this comment took a picture of this autumnal meeting between friends. Somehow happy, with Torso X's score in his hands, the composer can be seen laughing, although already heavily marked by his illness, between Thomas Friedli and the cellist Annick Gautier, in whose flat they had gathered to discuss the new work. Ermano Maggini's lifetime should not be long enough for a concert première. He died on 19 December 1991, which is all the more tragic as we know that all these performers are no longer alive. Annick Gautier died in 2003, aged 52. Thomas Friedli died in an accident in 2008, at the age of 62. Werner Zumsteg passed away after a long illness in August 2018. These were high-ranking, unforgettable performers who did much to ensure that Ermano Maggini's work was recognised by a broad public in Switzerland and abroad. All the more important today is their performance on CD, a unique document of the times. It is up to the courageous commitment of a new generation of performers to make this important musical treasure trove accessible to a future world of listeners.
Quote from: Evi Kliemand, Orte des Schaffens – Orte des Begegnens. Ein Schweizer Komponist ERMANO MAGGINI (1931 – 1991), Verlag Müller & Schade Bern 2014m, ISBN 978-3 –905760-15-6:
“The works respond to each other beyond the time of their creation. Of his complete works, 26 compositions were premièred in concerts during his lifetime. A good ten more works were premièred in the context of exhibitions by Evi Kliemand and her readings in front of an audience, including the works for violoncello solo, played by Annik Escher-Gautier, impressive musical moments in the encounter with visual art. (…) The term 'Torso' covers ten very different works. (…) The composer once explained 'Torso' as the body of sound that reaches back from silence into silence. During his last summer sojourn in Intragna, already under the sword of Damocles of the diseased lungs, Ermano Maggini wrote his last work, Torso X for A and B clarinet, which complements the earlier Canto XVII for flute and piano (transposed for clarinet in B flat and piano). It was as if the composer had endeavoured to introduce the human breath once again – or even forever – in this way.”


Text and editing: Evi Kliemand (2018)
Translation in English: Thom Batliner (2024)
Fondazione Ermano Maggini Intragna


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