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Agostino Steffani: Vocal chamber duets Agostino Steffani was one of the most important Italian composers of the Baroque period. He also played an important diplomatic role within the heart of the Catholic Church, carrying out various administrative duties. Like many musicians of the period, the vast majority of his career took place in Germany, where he worked variously in Munich, Hanover and Düsseldorf. Steffani began his musical education at a young age, working as a singer during his youth, and his skills soon began to attract interest. In 1667 he caught the attention of the Elector Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria, who took him to Munich. Steffani’s musical education was entrusted to renowned tutors of the day, including Johann Caspar Kerll in Munich and Ercole Bernabei in Rome, which he visited for the first time in 1672. It would appear that his career began in 1675, when he was appointed court organist in Munich. In 1681 he completed his first composition, the opera Marco Aurelio, which was commissioned by Maximilian II Emanuel, who had succeeded Ferdinand Maria as Elector of Bavaria. Emanuel appointed Steffani to be director of chamber music as well as court diplomat. In 1683 he became Abbot of the Bavarian town of Lepsing (today Löpsingen); after this point his secular works would be signed by his private secretary and copyist, Gregorio Piva. In 1688 he moved to the court in Hanover, where he would oversee a new flourishing in musical activity, including the inauguration of a new theatre in 1689, for which Steffani specially composed his new work Henrico Leone. In 1703 the composer entered the service of the Elector Palatine, Johann Wilhelm, who made him rector of the University of Heidelberg; three years later, under Pope Clement XI, he was consecrated as Bishop of Spiga. His most important ecclesiastical post came in 1709, when he was made Apostolic Vicar in northern Germany, choosing Hanover as his base (a city in which he would remain, except from a short sojourn in Italy, for the
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rest of his life). Steffani’s active life, which led him to travel extensively, was acknowledged in 1727 with his nomination as honorary president of the Academy of Vocal Music (later the Academy of Ancient Music) in London. Steffani’s musical output was particularly rich in operas and sacred works; he also wrote a notable amount of secular vocal music, favouring the organic quality of two solo voices equally partnered in duet, in contrast to the practice of the time, which was to pair a solo voice with basso continuo. Steffani’s chamber vocal music was well known across Europe; thanks to copies of manuscripts, we know that his music was performed both privately and publicly. The renowned composer and theorist Johann Mattheson, who wrote treatises dedicated to the practice of German Baroque music, mentions Steffani’s duets in his Der vollkommene Capellmeister of 1739. Indeed, Steffani’s compositions were praised by many musicians during his lifetime, and his style would have an influence on several composers to come, among them Georg Philipp Telemann, Giovanni Battista Martini and Handel. Elisa Morelli Translation: Maria Cristina Pierobon
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Elena Bertuzzi Soprano Elena Bertuzzi graduated in operatic studies from the ‘E.F. Dall’Abaco’ Conservatoire in Verona. She went on to study Renaissance and Baroque singing at the ‘A. Pedrollo’ Conservatoire in Vicenza, graduating cum laude. In 1996 she won first prize at the Accademia Filarmonica contest in Verona. Her performance career encompasses concerts both as a solo artist and in chamber ensembles and orchestras, in Italy and abroad; she has worked with conductors such as Eliahu Inbal, Jeffrey Tate, Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli, Ton Koopman, Sigiswald Kuijken and Peter Phillips. Elena has performed in festivals such as Al Bustan Festival (Lebanon); Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico); Festival Internacional de Santander (Spain); Festival International de Musiques Sacrées (Switzerland); Itinéraire Baroque (France); Allegro, Castilla y Leòn (Spain); Resonanzen (Austria); Internationale Barocktage Stift Melk (Austria); Mittelfest (Italy); Grandezze e Meraviglie (Italy); Musica e Poesia a S. Maurizio (Italy); SettembreMusica MITO (Italy); Ravenna Festival (Italy); Urbino Musica Antica (Italy); Laus Polyphoniae, Festival van Vlaanderen (Belgium); Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik (Austria); Alden Biesen (Belgium); Mie¸dzynarodowy Festiwal (Poland); Settimane Musicali di Stresa (Italy); Vokalmusik entlang der Romanischen Straße (Germany); Festival Arte Sacro (Spain); Festival Internacional de Música Antigua (Spain); Anima Mundi (Italy); Alte Musik Live 4
(Germany); Les Concerts de Bonmont (Switzerland); Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields, Murray River International Music Festival, Mildura, Beethoven Festival, Melbourne (Australia). She has taken part in various opera and oratorio productions, ranging from Monteverdi to Mozart. Elena’s recordings have been broadcast on radio station across Europe, as well as in Australia. She has recorded for the labels WDR-Arcana, Stradivarius, Tactus, Label and Dynamic. This is her second recording for Brilliant Classics; her first, a six-CD compilation of chamber music by Georg Benda, was released in 2013 (94433).
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Alessio Tosi Alessio Tosi graduated in song and vocal chamber music from the ‘Lucio Campiani’ Conservatoire in Mantua. Particularly interested in chamber music and oratorio, he has studied in Italy and abroad with renowned masters such as Ulf Bästlein, Ulrich Eisenlohr, Erik Battaglia, Stacey Bartsch, Dalton Baldwin, Irwin Gage, Walter Moore, Helge Dorsch and Charles Spencer. He has collaborated with La Venexiana, conducted by Claudio Cavina, and the Centre of Ancient Music ‘Pietà de’ Turchini’ in Naples. He has been a prizewinner in several major international competitions: Internationaler Lieder Wettbewerb in Husum (Germany) (2009 and 2010 finalist, and scholarship); V International Singing Competition ‘Giulio Neri’ in Torrita di Siena (finalist and certificate of merit); VI International Baroque Singing Competition ‘F. Provenzale’ in Naples (third prize); XXIV International Competition of Vocal Chamber Music in Città di Conegliano (second prize); International Singing Competition ‘Francisco Viñas’ in Barcelona (2011 finalist); and in 2010 he received a chamber music scholarship from the Conservatory of Mantua (first prize). He regularly performs at international Baroque festivals such as SettembreMusica MITO (Milan), Regensburg (Germany), Mechelen (Belgium), Santander (Spain), Stresa (Italy), Kraków (Poland), Styriarte Festival in Graz (Austria), Halle Handel Festival (Germany), and in prestigious concert halls, among them Paris, Cité de la Musique; Amsterdam, Concertgebouw; St Petersburg, Pushkin Palace; the Mozarteum in Salzburg; and the Wiener Konzerthaus. He has recorded for Sony, Dynamic, Classic Voice, Velut Luna, Philips and Tactus, and for several broadcasters such as RAI Radio 3, BBC, NDR, ORF 1 and Radio 6
France. He has been praised by both critics and audiences for his performances in various Monteverdi works (Pisandro in Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria; Nutrice in L’incoronazione di Poppea; and a pastor and Apollo in L’Orfeo). His debut as a title character took place in Vienna, with the role of Thyrsis in Costanzi’s eponymous oratorio, followed by Polidoro in Alessandro Scarlatti’s serenata Erminia (in Naples, under the baton of Marcello Di Lisa) and Creonte in Dmitry Bortniansky’s eponymous opera (performed in St Petersburg under the direction of Cˇrtomir Šiškovicˇ). Highly acclaimed as a Lieder performer, his repertoire includes the masterpieces of German, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian song. Tosi has just completed a five-CD recording of the complete vocal chamber opera of Spontini for the Tactus label, as well as duets by Stradella with Dame Emma Kirkby (Brilliant Classics, 94343) and, for ORF, duets by Benedetto Marcello. Currently he is studying with renowned pianist Charles Spencer at the University of Vienna. His next project is a touring production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with La Venexiana (playing the first pastor and Apollo) in Kraków, Budapest and Japan. In 2011 he auditioned successfully for a teaching post in Baroque singing on the pre-academic courses held at the ‘Santa Cecilia’ Conservatoire in Rome.
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Francesco Baroni Organist and harpsichordist Francesco Baroni was born in Parma, and studied organ with Francesco Tasini and harpsichord with Bob van Asperen. His concert activity began at a young age, in 1980, when he played with the ensemble Il Dolcimelo as both as a soloist and continuo player. He has recorded for the labels Arion, Tactus, Naxos, Symphonia, Glossa, Brilliant Classics and ORF, as well as for radio and television. As director of the ensemble Compagnia de Musici, which he founded in 1992, he focuses in particular on the rediscovery of hitherto unpublished Italian music of the 1600s and 1700s. This has to date included works such as Concerti da Chiesa Op.2 (1729) by Andrea Zani with the violinist Alessandro Ciccolini in 1998; in 2001 he went on to record Francesco Antonio Pistocchi’s oratorio San Adriano (1692), receiving enthusiastic acclaim from international critics (the French magazine Répertoire gave the performance 10 out of 10, and he was recognised in the Prelude Classical Awards 2003 for Best Baroque Oratorio). In 2003, as both performer and director, he recorded the instrumental music of Carlo Tessarini (1690–1766) with violinist Susanne Scholz and flautist Stefania Marusi. He is honorary inspector at the Authority for Historical, Cultural and Ethnoanthropological Artefacts of Parma and Piacenza, responsible for the protection and restoration of historic organs. He is also Professor of Harpsichord at the ‘Arrigo Boito’ Conservatoire in Parma.
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Rebeca Ferri Rebeca Ferri was born in Rome in 1976 and studied the cello there under Maurizio Gambini at the ‘Santa Cecilia’ Conservatoire, graduating in 1998. She went on to study recorder with Maria De Martini, and specialised with Kees Boeke, Michael Schneider, Han Tol, John Tyson and Marcos Volonterio. On both the cello and recorder she was awarded first prize in the annual competition ‘Jugend musiziert’, and she was also awarded a scholarship from Yehudi Menuhin’s Live Music Now Foundation in Germany. In 1995 Rebeca took up the Baroque cello, studying with Anner Bylsma, Gerhart Darmstadt, Roel Dieltiens, Balazs Maté and Stephen Vajda. She obtained her diploma on this instrument in 2003, under the tutelage of Jaap ter Linden at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg, and continued her studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, where she was invited to attend specialist Meisterklasse with Kristin von der Goltz, graduating with honours in 2007. Rebeca is a member of the ensembles I Turchini, Academia Montis Regalis, Ensemble Baroque du Léman, Gli Incogniti, Camerata Artemisia, A l’Antica, Main-Barockorchester, Concerto Würzburg, Ensemble 1800, Accademia Ottoboni, Concerto Romano, Ensemble Arte Musica and La Venexiana. She has recorded for Sony, Harmonia Mundi, Carus, Glossa, Eloquentia, Opus 111, Tactus, Dynamic and Amadeus. She plays a cello by André Mehler (Leipzig, 2011), a copy of Martinus Kaiser (Venice, 1679), and recorders by Francesco Li Virghi (Rome), copies of original models.
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Michele Pasotti Michele Pasotti studied the lute under Massimo Lonardi, graduating with honours. He then went on to attend specialist masterclasses with Hopkinson Smith and Paul O’Dette, thereafter continuing his studies at the Civica Scuola di Musica in Milan with Laura Alvini and Diego Fratelli. Under the guidance of both Kees Boeke and Pedro Memelsdorff at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona, Michele undertook research into lateMedieval performance practices; and at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’ he attended an advanced course on the Ars Nova style in Europe, graduating cum laude. He also graduated cum laude in theoretical philosophy. He is the director and founder of la fonte musica, an ensemble that specialises in late-Medieval music, with whom he released the award-winning album Le Ray au Soleyl for ORF/Alte Musik. He regularly collaborates with various ensembles, including I Barocchisti, Il Giardino Armonico, Orpheus 55, Ghislieri Consort, Il canto di Orfeo, Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, Capella Cracoviensis and L’Arte dell’Arco. He has received international critical acclaim for his performances with these groups. In 2013 Michele was appointed Professor of Lute at the Cesena Conservatoire, and since 2012 he has led the Ars Nova in Milan seminar at the Civica Scuola di Musica in Milan. Additionally, he has directed academic conferences which aim to promote the lute and early music. 10
He has been asked to perform at many of the most prestigious concert halls, in Europe, China, South Korea and Turkey. As well as numerous recordings for radio and television, Michele has recorded for several labels, such as Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, EMI/Virgin Classics, Naïve and Sony. He is particularly proud of his recording of the works of Francesco Corbetta, A Guitarist from Pavia Across Europe (Dynamic), on which he features as a soloist. He has also recorded a CD devoted entirely to the works of Pergolesi with the Orchestra Mozart, conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Recording: 19–22 June 2014, Chiesa di San Celestino, Pietole, Mantua, Italy Producer: Alessio Tosi Sound engineer: Luca Ricci Artist photos: Monica Querci (Tosi), Ribaltaluce Studio (Bertuzzi, Baroni), Giacomo Biagi (Ferri), Ramus Photography (Pasotti) & 2015 Brilliant Classics
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