La Notte CHRISTMAS NIGHT
LA NOTTE : CONCERTOS AND PASTORALES FOR CHRISTMAS NIGHT THE ILLYRIA CONSORT BOJAN ČIČIĆ
Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) Concerto for violin and strings, RV 104 ‘La notte’
1 I. Largo [2:08]
2 II. Fantasmi: Presto – Largo – Andante [1:44]
3 III. Presto [1:04]
4 IV. Il sonno: Largo [1:38]
5 V. Allegro [2:36]
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber Sonata ‘Pastorella’ (1644–1704)
6 I. [2:09]
7 II. [1:33]
8 III. [1:26]
Pavel Josef Vejvanovský Sonata Laetitiae for 2 violins, 3 viols (c.1630s/40–1693) and basso continuo
9 I. [Allegro] [2:18]
10 II. [Presto] [1:34]
Johann Georg Rauch Sonata No. X ‘Pastorella’ for 3 violins (1658–1710) and basso continuo *
11 I. Vivace [1:40]
12 II. Adagio [1:57]
13 III. Pastorella – Adagio [2:01]
Anon. Sonate ‘Wie schön leuchtet die Morgenstern’ (Minoritenkonvent Wien, MS XIV.726, No. 87)
14 I. Contrapunct sopra la Baßigaylos d’Altr. [5:15]
15 II. [3:51]
16 III. Adagio – Allegro [2:48]
17 IV. [2:58]
18 Anon. Sonate ‘Musikalisch Uhrwerk’ [7:08] (Minoritenkonvent Wien, MS XIV.726, No. 68)
Gottfried Finger Pastoralle for 3 viols and basso continuo (c.1655/60–1730)
19 I. Adagio [1:40] 20 II. Allegro – Adagio [2:09] 21 III. Adagio [1:37] 22 IV. Allegro – Adagio [2:50]
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer Sonata a 3 ‘Pastorale’ (from Sacro-Profanus (c.1620/23–1680) Concentus Musicus) 23 I. [1:04] 24 II. Adagio [0:42] 25 III. [2:08]
Antonio Vivaldi Concerto for strings, rv 270a ‘Il riposo –per il santissimo Natale’ 26 I. Allegro [3:49] 27 II. Andante * [1:38] Reconstructed by Olivier Fourés 28 III. Allegro [2:13]
Total playing time [65:52] * premiere recordings
Bojan Čičić and the Illyria Consort gratefully acknowledge the generous support of John Osborn, without which this recording would not have been possible.
Croatian-born violinist Bojan Čičić specialises in repertoire ranging from the late sixteenth century to the Romantic violin concertos of Mendelssohn and Beethoven. He is the leader of the Academy of Ancient Music and the ensemble Florilegium and is frequently invited to lead orchestras such as the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Concerto Copenhagen and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. His recording of J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins with Rachel Podger was named the best available recording of the work by BBC Radio 3’s ‘Building a Library’ in February 2022.
As well as founding and directing The Illyria Consort, Bojan has been invited to perform as a music director and a soloist with the Academy of Ancient Music, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Washington Bach Consort and Phion Orchestra in the Netherlands. 2023 will see the release on Delphian of his recording of J.S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin (DCD34300)
In 2016 Bojan was appointed Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal College of Music. He is passionate about training the next generation of instrumentalists in historically informed playing styles.
Bojan Čičić originally founded The Illyria Consort to explore rare repertoire of the seventeenth and eigheenth centuries from the Venetian Republic and the Habsburg Empire. The group was invited to perform at early music festivals in Europe such as the Korkyra Baroque Festival in Croatia, Laus Polyphoniae Festival in Belgium, Festival de Sablé in France, Utrecht Early Music Festival in the Netherlands and the York Early Music Christmas Festival in the UK. Its recordings have received great critical acclaim. The debut recording, on Delphian, of Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli’s Sonate da camera Nos. 1–6 (DCD34194) was chosen as one of Presto Classical’s Recordings of the Year for 2017. 2019 saw the release of two projects, the second volume of Carbonelli Sonatas (Delphian DCD34214) and a world première recording of Giovanni Giornovich’s London Concertos (DCD34219) 2021 brought two further releases: Pyrotechnia (DCD34249) showcasing virtuosic violin concertos by Vivaldi, Tartini and Locatelli, and a collaboration with The Marian Consort in Adriatic Voyage (DCD34260), presenting music by composers born on the Croatian coast in the 16th century, which won a Presto Recordings of the Year Award in 2021. 2022 sees the appearance of a 2-CD set of the first complete recording of the Scherzi da violino by Johan Jakob Walther (DCD34294).
The Illyria Consort Bojan Čičić violin by Giovanni Grancino, Milan 1703
Kinga Ujszászi violin by Antonio Gragnani, 1781
Henry Tong violin by G. Tanningard, Rome 1702
Rachel Byrt viola by Paul Harrild, 2008, copy of A. Guarneri
Reiko Ichise bass viol by David Rubio 1986, after G. Barbey (1720)
Henrik Persson viol by Edward Lewis, London 1703
Siobhan Armstrong Italian baroque triple harp by Enzo Laurenti, 2009
Joseph Crouch cello by George Stoppani, 1995, after an Italian seventeenth-century model
Pete McCarthy 6-string bass viol after Bertrand; violone after Busch (Nürnberg c.1640)
Sally Holman basson by Leslie Ross 1993, after Eichentopf (c. 1740)
David Miller theorbo by Martin Haycock 1995, after Italian models
Steven Devine harpsichord by Andrew Wooderson, after Grimaldi (1697); single-manual two-stop organ by Robin Jennings, 2000
Recorded on 16-18 March 2022 in St Martin’s
Church, East Woodhay, Hampshire
Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital editing: Jack Davis
24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter
Design: Drew Padrutt
Booklet editor: Henry Howard
Cover: Aaron Burden/Unsplash Session photography: foxbrushfilms.com Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.com
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DCD34197
Geoffrey Webber and his choir have developed a reputation for exploring the unusual, and this album is no exception. A number of traditional French melodies have been adapted over the years to become familiar Christmas fare in English-speaking lands; here, they are heard in their original French arrangements, accompanied by a French-style organ with pungent reeds and powerful string stops. The resulting Romantic fervour is an aspect of Christmas that is sometimes lost amid the Anglo-Saxon tradition of Christmas trees and domestic bliss, and it gives fresh context and meaning to beloved music from Berlioz and his successors.
‘Fervent, engaging, heart-on-sleeve interpretations … vraiment superbe!’ — Choir & Organ, October 2018
Adriatic Voyage: Seventeenth-century music from Venice to Dalmatia The Marian Consort / Rory McCleery; The Illyria Consort / Bojan Čičić
DCD34260
Two of Delphian’s most admired ensembles join forces for this imaginative programme of sacred and secular music by composers working along the Dalmatian Coast – now largely in Croatia, then mostly the territory of Venice – in the decades around 1600. It was a time in which constant movement of people and trade of goods created linguistic and cultural cross-currents, in contrast to the sharp distinctions encouraged in later centuries by the emergence of modern nation states. Much of this music would have been regarded as Venetian, but the journey points up intriguing differences between the composers and pieces presented, many of them in premiere recordings, while violinist and director Bojan Čičić’s interactions with cornettist Gawain Glenton – and the rich ornamentation contributed by all the musicians here – bring the period back to vivid, unforgettable life.
‘A cornucopia of sacred and secular instrumental and vocal music, performed with arresting, period-evocative beauty’ — Gramophone, January 2022
Christmas in Puebla Siglo de Oro &
DCD34238
/ Patrick Allies
By the early 1620s, when Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla migrated from Cádiz to New Spain (modern-day Mexico), the colony was a wealthy outpost of the Habsburg Empire, keen to maintain the religious and musical customs of its mother country. At the cathedral of the young, thriving city of Puebla de los Ángeles, Padilla had at his disposal a sizeable body of men and boys who not only sang but also played instruments – including guitars, sackbut, dulcian, and simple percussion such as the cajón. Siglo de Oro’s programme explores the rich soundworld of this time and place through the reconstruction of a Mass at Christmas Eve, including a number of villancicos – energetic, dance-like pieces whose captivating mixture of Mexican, Afro-Hispanic and Portuguese influences would have invigorated even the most sober churchgoer.
‘A sonic festive feast’ — Choir & Organ, December 2020, five stars
Pyrotechnia: Fire & Fury from 18th-Century Italy Bojan
Čičić violin, The Illyria Consort DCD34249
Contemporary accounts of the violin playing of Antonio Vivaldi, the ‘Red Priest’, show the extent to which he raised the instrument to hitherto unknown extremes of soloistic virtuosity – able, in its spontaneity and sonorous brilliance, to hold its own against an orchestra in fiery and unforgettably dramatic confrontations.
Thanks to Vivaldi’s pupils, eager to imitate the master’s wilder imaginings, several of his improvised cadenzas have been preserved. Here, they inspire typically white-hot performances from Bojan Čičić and The Illyria Consort of four violin concertos by Vivaldi, Tartini and Locatelli which all have movements ending in a ‘capriccio’ – a sequence designed to show that the idea of a virtuosic display cadenza, usually associated with the classical concerto of a later period, had already developed during the first half of the eighteenth century.
‘Čičić’s approach – sensitive and fluid, while never less than technically immaculate – shows these unashamedly swaggering pieces in all their ostentatious magnificence’
— Presto Music, October 2021
Cantique de Noël: French music for Christmas from Berlioz to Debussy Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge / Geoffrey Webber PRESTOJohann Jakob Walther: Scherzi da violino
Bojan Čičić violin, The Illyria Consort
DCD34294
Johann Jakob Walther was one of the most significant violinists in Germany in the generation before J.S. Bach, and Bojan Čičić believes his music should be essential listening for anyone seeking a fuller understanding of Bach’s polyphonic writing for the instrument. Having built their reputation with a series of Delphian recordings focussing on ‘missing link’ composers, Čičić and his Illyria Consort are passionate about bringing Walther’s collection of Scherzi da violino to the wider audience it deserves.
This first complete recording displays the sheer ambition of Walther’s opus, with highlights including his demonstration of the violin’s polyphonic potential in the D major sonata (No. III); the joyful playfulness of the end of No. IV; the inventiveness of the Imitatione del cuccu; and – Bojan Čičić’s personal favourite – the dramatic melancholy of the final Aria in E minor.
New in August 2022
In the Stillness: A Merton Christmas
The Girl Choristers & Lower Voices of Merton College, Oxford / Benjamin Nicholas DCD34262
In the stillness of a midnight stable, a babe is born … In the stillness of an Oxford chapel on a winter’s afternoon, a girl’s voice sings. The newest star in Oxford’s – and Delphian’s – choral firmament, Merton College's girl choristers have been singing services under the directorship of Benjamin Nicholas for less than five years: in their debut recording, supported by the Lower Voices of Merton College, they tell once more in music from across the centuries the timeless Christmas story of light, hope and joy for a troubled world.
New in October 2022
17th-Century Sonatas from the Düben Collection Spiritato / Kinga Ujszászi director DCD34276
Between 1640 and 1720 the immigrant German Düben family produced three generations of Capellmeisters at Sweden’s wealthy and fashionable royal court, where they amassed a huge collection of printed music and manuscripts. The meticulous cataloguing of this collection at Uppsala University has allowed Spiritato’s Kinga Ujszászi to fulfil the ensemble’s avowed aim of exploring a vast and little-known repertory. Of particular interest to the group was music that seems to show the first collaborations of the royal Capelle with the separate trumpet corps, bringing trumpets into the context of courtly music and allowing the players to push the boundaries of their instrument and skills.
New in September 2022
Rising talent Tabea Debus makes an immediate impression as she joins the roster of Delphian house artists, coaxing an astonishing spectrum of moods and timbres from an array of Renaissance and Baroque recorders. Equally astounding is the tightness and responsiveness of her interaction with gamba player Jonathan Rees and lutenist Alex McCartney, while solos for recorder alone bookend the programme chronologically with music from the fourteenth century and the twenty-first.
‘There’s a lovely sense of affectionate irreverence … Renaissance and Baroque works are despatched with an almost folky exuberance, and it’s a toe-tapping joy’
— Presto Classical, August 2020, EDITOR’S CHOICE
Ohrwurm Tabea Debus, Jonathan Rees, Alex McCartney DCD34243
