A Trail on the Water

They were friends - in life and in art: the conductor, the pianist and the composer. Claudio Abbado, Maurizio Pollini and Luigi Nono shared something that can unite great artists beyond words: a particular sensitivity to the uniqueness of every moment, every encounter, every nuance of change.

“More surprises, more discoveries,” Luigi Nono once wished for. Venice, his hometown, was a place he wanted to see again and again with new eyes. Claudio Abbado and Maurizio Pollini shared this open, alert gaze with him. They also shared Nono's political vision: a longing for a world of humanity, solidarity and attentiveness. Ascolta - 'listen' was Nono’s guiding thought.

What they inspired in one another is told in this film by Maurizio Pollini and Claudio Abbado, together with Nuria Schoenberg Nono, the composer’s widow. Luigi Nono himself is present through his music and through poetic words such as: “In Venice, I hear the stones, the colour of the stones. I do not see the colour of the sea, but I hear the colour of water.”

Above all, this resonance becomes audible in the music: a trace that inscribes itself in the heart - a trail on the water.