95090
Ensemble Trictilla Lucia Sciannimanico mezzo-soprano
Valerio Losito
baroque violin & lyra da braccio
Marta Graziolino triple harp
AndrĂŠ Henrich lute
Giulia Nuti
gut stringed harpsichord & recorder
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3
It is no easy task to conjure up a complete, cohesive picture of Renaissance instrumental music in just one recording. Renaissance music is a wide-reaching universe, full of experimentation in its use of instruments, many of which were undergoing remarkable development. Indeed, the increasing independence of these “sound objects” from the “human voice” was shortly to lead to the birth of musical forms such as the baroque sonata. It was during the Renaissance that musicians first began to invest solo instruments such as the violin with a fundamental role, one that was to characterize Italian music of the 1600s and 1700s. Yet although Italian instrumental music of the 1500s is currently the focus of some performance and research, it is nevertheless generally neglected as a field of musical philology. This CD thus hopes to remedy the omission by treading a little-known path aimed at providing listeners with a broader understanding of how music was conceived during the Italian Renaissance. In so doing, the intent is to reveal to what extent instrumental music of the period can hold its own alongside the more familiar realms of the great vocal repertoire. In pursuit of this goal, we undertook a major study of the foremost editions and manuscript collections of Renaissance instrumental music. Not only the solo repertoire for violin, lyra da braccio, keyboard, harp and lute, but also solo ricercars, 4-part dances, and arrangements of the vocal scores of madrigals. The wide range of pieces that make up the recording give an eloquent idea of the music that would have been played and heard in the home of an Italian gentleman. Indeed, from the outset we realized that the concept of the gentleman would be central to our quest: according to the first Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, a dictionary compiled by the Florentine learned society of the Accademia della Crusca, printed in Venice in 1612, the word “gentle” (gentile in Italian) meant noble, gracious, courteous. During the Renaissance in Italy, “gentilezza” was a broad concept that that did not pertain exclusively to nobility of lineage, but rather belonged to whoever cultivated nobility of the spirit, regardless of patrician origins (He who pursued virtue was considered gentle, while those who pursued vice were not considered gentle). Cosimo 4
Bartoli, himself a Florentine gentleman and writer, explained that the gentleman should make use of music “only as a recreation for the spirit, with the modesty and courtesy expected of noblemen and those of elevated birth, indeed I believe and am sure that this is not just admirable, but also expedient: I would even go so far as to call it necessary” (Ragionamenti Accademici di Cosimo Bartoli, gentil’huomo et Accademico Fiorentino, Venice, De Franceschi, 1567). From the first years of the 16th century, music became an appurtenance of Italian well-to-do houses, in the shape of instruments for creating sound that became part of the furnishings. During the same period, moreover, music publishing turned volatile notes into real objects: numerous editions of scores that brought a range of different compositions into people’s homes. The gentleman who studied and cultivated music was a true dilettante, in that he practised the art of music for his own delight (diletto) and education. It is thus interesting to note that the Accademia della Crusca dictionary defined diletto as meaning pleasure, joy, contentment of mind as well as body. The noble dilettante’s chosen instruments were the lute, the harpsichord, the lyra da braccio and of course the voice. No self-respecting gentlemen would have accommodated in his own dwelling the vulgar instruments of street music: cornets, trumpets, crumhorns and percussion. Witness of this fact is to be found in the words of Vincenzo Galilei, composer, musician and father of Galileo Galilei: Instruments of this sort are never heard in the private chambers of judicious Gentlemen, Lords and Princes, where those who take part are truly endowed with judgment, taste and good hearing. (Dialogo,1581). The recercar and the fantasia were the new musical forms for one solo instrument (keyboard or lute), or on occasions two voices. In this regards the printer Girolamo Scotto was to note that: This music for two voices is well suited to Princes and Lords: they turn to it when away from the tumult of the throng, with family and household members, enjoying the melody that is the fruit of the intellect of excellent Composers. (Ihan Gero, Madrigali a due voice Venice, 1541). The term ricercar was used for the first time by Francesco Spinacino (Intabulatura de lauto, 1507) to refer to works that 5
sounded like improvisation, printed in lute or organ tablature, and characterized by rich ornamentation and an unspecified number of parts. The same term in Italian (ricercare) refers to a free form that facilitates “inquiry” (in Italian ricerca) into the instruments’ sound potential. Outstanding examples of this musical genre are the ricercars and fantasies for lute composed by some of the greatest virtuoso players of the period: Francesco Spinacino (track 10), Giovanni Maria da Crema (track 15) and Francesco da Milano (track 18). In some of the ricercars the development of the musical material depends on one given feature: for instance the ricercar sopra il canto fermo di Costanzo Festa e per sonar all’arpa composed by the Neapolitan musician Ascanio Mayone (track 17), a sort of “written improvisation” for harp on a subject from a well known cantus firmus of the period. The increasingly frequent use of instruments during the Renaissance was also facilitated by the practice of “reducing” the score of madrigals (originally written for four or five parts) to one voice accompanied by the lute or keyboard, whereby the other voices of the madrigal were rearranged to suit the single instrument. This is the case of the two madrigals in this recording, Arcadelt’s Il bianco e dolce cigno (track 2) and Verdelot’s Donna che sete tra le belle, bella (track 11). As well as making performance easier, this phenomenon also influenced the development of instrumental music by favouring the solo melodic instrument as a replacement for the voice, accompanied by one or more harmonic instruments. Played by a melodic instrument such as the violin (which dates back to the first half of the 1500s) or a recorder, the single vocal line could be enriched with diminutions and passages. The vocal approach thus became the basis for a new musical language that was entirely instrumental, preparing the way for what was to become the development of the 17th century a solo symphony. In this sense the concept of the “ricercar” and the “fantasia” was applied to another existing piece, like a madrigal, which is when it is appropriate to speak of “diminution” or “variation”: a sort of paraphrase of the whole melodic structure of the original piece. 6
The works included in the recording range from the early Capricci by Vincenzo Ruffo, the Veronese priest and composer who composed a structure in counterpoint on the theme of the “Gamba” folk song (track 13), to the diminutions written by Diego Ortiz and Girolamo Dalla Casa on the basis of two madrigals, respectively O felici occhi miei and Susanne un jour (tracks 21 and 23), which are highly original works by two of the foremost composers of vocal music of the 1500s, Jacques Arcadelt and Orlando di Lasso. The diminutions for lute composed by Francesco Spinacino on the madrigal Adieu mon amour (track 20) belong to the same genre, as do those written by Francesco Rognoni Taeggio (track 14) on Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s madrigal Vestiva i colli, performed here on the violin with harpsichord and harp accompaniment. The short compositions for two parts in counterpoint known as bicinia were often used as teaching devices. A bicinium was an example of “pure” music, in that it was born without specific reference to instruments. Paintings dating back to the first half of the 16th century provide us with information concerning the two instruments that might have been involved: one bowed and one plucked instrument, harp and lute, harp and portative organ, portative organ and lute, lyra da braccio and bagpipe, two recorders, lyra da braccio and lute. In this recording we have included two of Orlando di Lasso’s famous bicinia because they are representative of the genre as a whole (tracks 12 and 16). Towards the end of the 1500s, music in dance form also increased in popularity, as the growing number of published editions of dances goes to show. In contrast to what went on outdoors in the streets, in well-to-do houses the dances were performed with great elegance and refinement, not least on account of the attention paid to the instruments involved. The most famous collection of this genre is Giorgio Mainerio’s Primo libro de’ balli, printed in Venice in 1578. The composer adopted typical folk dances such as the Ungarescha (track 6) or the Schiarazula Marazula (track 7), reshaping them and investing them with the musical dignity befitting a patrician audience. Dance forms in music first encountered the technique of diminution in the 7
Renaissance, though the practice became much more common in the Baroque period, giving rise to compositions or great refinement despite their folk origins. Eloquent cases in point are the variations on the Passamezzo (originally a slow dance in binary rhythm), written by Marco Facoli (track 8), those on the Romanesca for lyra da braccio by an anonymous composer (track 9), and those on the Pavane, both in the simple version (“piana” track 3) and “alla venetiana” (track 24).
LUCIA SCIANNIMANICO, mezzo-soprano Lucia Sciannamanico’s vast repertoire goes well beyond the Baroque period that has become her focus. Her remarkable versatility as a singer allows her to interpret with equal skill medieval music, the chamber repertoire, concert performance, and early modern and contemporary music, including cabaret; to say nothing of her work with performance artists and youth theatre. Among the foremost works that she has performed are the Passions, Masses and Oratorios by Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Haydn, Rossini and Mendelssohn. She has also taken part in performances of Monteverdi’s “L’incoronazione di Poppea”, and Vivaldi’s “Arsilda Regina di Ponto”, “Orlando Furioso”, “Tito Manlio”. In February 2003 her concert performance of Vivaldi’s “Juditha Triumphans” was hailed by Diapason magazine as “Un des meilleurs Holofernes jamais entendus avec Sciannimanico, à la fois colorée et cuivrée, qui sait donner de l’épaisseur au rôle sans l’alourdir” (“One of the best Holofernes ever heard with Sciannimanico, both colourful and resonant, able to invest the role with depth without weighing it down”). Other widely acclaimed interpretations include her roles in Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas”, Cavalli’s “La Didone”, M.A. Cesti’s 8
“La Dori”, Handel’s “Deidamia”, “Aci, Galatea e Polifemo” and “ Imeneo”, A. Scarlatti’s “Caino”, her performance as the Second Dame in Mozart’s “Magic Flute”, as Cherubino in “Le nozze di Figaro” as Haensel in Humperdink’s opera and as Pinocchio in the opera of the same name by M. Tutino. Lucia Sciannimanico has also worked with important theatres and festivals such as Teatro Comunale in Florence, Teatro Verdi in Pisa, Ravenna Festival, Metastasio in Prato, Teatro Regio in Turin, Macerata Opera Festival, Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Teatro Comunale in Treviso, Accademia Chigiana di Siena, Haendel Festspiele Halle, Tage Alter Musik in Regensburg, Opera Barga, Altstadtherbst Kulturfestival Düsseldorf, Musikfestspiele in Potsdam, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Teatro San Carlo in Naples.
VALERIO LOSITO, baroque violin and lyra da braccio The baroque violinist and viola d’amore player Valerio Losito graduated with the highest honours after studying with Yvonne Ekman in Rome (modern violin) and Enrico Onofri in Palermo (Baroque violin). He has performed in concerts throughout Europe, America and Japan, both as a chamber musician and with international orchestras such as the European Union Baroque Orchestra. He has collaborated with major conductors and early music specialists such as Rinaldo Alessandrini, Federico M. Sardelli, Riccardo Minasi, René Clemencic and Chiara Banchini. Since 2006 he has played a Ferdinando Gagliano viola d’amore, on loan from the Elsa Peretti Foundation. 9
As a musicologist he has carried out several research projects in libraries all over Italy, and together with Renato Criscuolo he rediscovered Vivaldi’s motet Vos invito, barbarae faces, now identified as RV811. Valerio’s first recording for Brilliant Classics was in 2011: a performance of Domenico Scarlatti’s “melobass sonatas” on the viola d’amore with the harpsichordist Andrea Coen. In 2012 he recorded the album “Viola d’amore solo” (a collection of solo music for this instrument), and in 2014 he released two CDs of solo violin works, Carlo Tessarini’s violin sonatas and Francesco Maria Veracini’s sonatas from unpublished manuscripts. His discography also includes the labels Deutsche Grammophon, Naïve, Dynamic, Musicaimmagine Records, CPO and WDR-3. MARTA GRAZIOLINO, triple harp Marta Graziolino was born in Turin in 1976. She studied with G. Bosio and graduated in modern harp at the G. Verdi Conservatoire in her home city in 1997. In June 2002 she graduated in Renaissance and Baroque harp under Mara Galassi at the Civical Scuola di Musica in Milan. She then studied under Eugène Ferré at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Lyon to obtain the Certificat d’Études Complémentaires Supérieures in 2004. Her focus was the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and classic repertoire performed on copies of single, double or triple-strung, simple movement instruments. She plays regularly with the following ensembles: Europa Galante (F. Biondi), Accademia Bizantina (O. Dantone), Academia Montis Regalis (A. De Marchi), La Venexiana (C. Cavina), Cantica Symphonia (G. Maletto), Tetraktys (K. Boeke), La Fonte Musica (M. Pasotti) and 10
occasionally with the Orchestra Giovanile L. Cherubini (conducted by R. Muti), La Scintilla (A. Pesch), Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (F. Biondi), Les Flamboyants, Micrologus and others. She has recorded over 40 CDs for Decca, OPUS111/Naive, Chandos, Glossa, Harmonia Mundi, K617, Amadeus, Symphonia and Stradivarius.
ANDRÉ HENRICH, lute André Henrich was born in Oberwesel, Germany. In 2000 he graduated from the Musikhochschule in Cologne, where he studied with Konrad Junghänel. He now performs internationally as a soloist and continuo player on the lute, the theorbo and the baroque guitar. Based in Paris since 2002, he has worked with renowned ensembles and directors, such as Les Arts Florissants directed by William Christie, Reinhard Goebel’s Musica Antiqua Köln, David Stern’s orchestra Opera Fuoco, the Collegium Vocale Gent under Philippe Herreweghe. In the field of chamber music he works regularly with Les Folies Françoises, Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, Fuoco e Cenere and the with recorder player Dorothee Oberlinger’s Ensemble 1700. André Henrich has performed throughout Europe and the USA and also in Japan, Taiwan, Egypt and India. He has been involved in more than thirty CD recordings and in productions for television and DVD. As a soloist, he is particularly interested in the German and French repertoire for the baroque lute. He has played in solo recitals in Bruges, in Poznan, Poland; at the ‘Muziek Biennale Niederrhein’, Germany; for the English Lute Society in London; in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, Japan; and for the Western Music Forum in Hyderarbad, India. André Henrich teaches lute and theorbo at the Conservatoire of Saint-Maurdes-Fossés. 11