The third protagonist of the series MUSIC & WORDS by Facundo Agudín and Musique des Lumières, in collaboration with Ibs Classical, is the Russian-American writer of Jewish origin Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996), winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize. Musique des Lumières has commissioned six works from five composers from very different backgrounds who, inspired by Brodsky’s texts, use music to honour this uncompromising intellectual and key figure in world literature.
On The Brodsky Album, Facundo Agudín and Musique des Lumières present six works commissioned and composed between 2020 and 2022 of homogeneous aesthetics. In particular, the vocal delivery seems to reflect the immensity of the Russian’s poetic lyricism. Two of them, Brodsky, Vivaldi and Stravinsky by Pablo Ortiz and Barcarolle oubliée by Joan Magrané fixate on one of the pinnacles of his literature: Watermark. Christmas Ballad by Andreas Pflüger and Nativity by Pablo Ortiz recall Brodsky’s peculiar penchant for writing Christmas texts from his personal identity as a creator. A Song by Hinako Takagi values the polyphony and rhythm of his poetic language and, finally, The Saints and the Aint’s by Paul Suits sets to music relevant physical and temporal spaces present in the work of the poet, essayist, and translator who is considered one of the greatest literary figures of the Soviet era.