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Degli Antoni
12 Sonatas Op.4 for Violin and Basso Continuo
ALESSANDRO CICCOLINI violin IL CORO D’ARCADIA
Pietro Degli Antoni 12 Sonatas Op.4 for Violin and Basso Continuo Pietro Degli Antoni was born in Bologna on 16th May 1639. A composer and skilled performer on the cornett and violin, from 1653 to 1657 he was a member of the Cappella musicale di S. Petronio under the direction of Maurizio Cazzati, and from 1655 to 1658 a supernumerary associate of the Concerto Palatino. Having established a name for himself as a brilliant cornett player in various Italian and foreign cities, he returned to Bologna and was granted entry to the Accademia dei Filaschisi. In 1666, he was invited by Count Vincenzo Maria Carrati to become one of the founding members of the prestigious Accademia Filarmonica, an institution that still exists to this day. The purpose of the Accademia Filarmonica was to bring together professional musicians “so well united that they always play together, creating fine sound”, such that the ensemble immediately became a sort of corporation aimed at preserving the prestige and professionalism of its members. Apart from Pietro Degli Antoni, right from the outset the Accademia comprised around fifty musicians, most of them from Bologna or central Italy. They included some of the most eminent of musicians of the age, such as Agostino Filippuzzi, Giulio Cesare Aresti, Giovanni Paolo Colonna, Giuseppe Felice Tosi and Giovanni Battista Vitali, who also played at the church of S. Petronio in Bologna, or at the behest of the Duke of Modena. During the following years other musicians of widespread fame or future international acclaim joined the Academy: Arcangelo Corelli, for instance, as well as Giovanni Battista Bassani, Giuseppe Torelli, Giovanni Bononcini and many others. The founder of the Academy, Count Carrati, had established that each year a mass and vespers should be celebrated in honour of its patron saint, Anthony of Padua, and that these events should involve all the Academy members currently in the city and any worthy foreign guests. During the early years these celebrations were held in various of the city’s churches, including S. Maria dei Servi, San Domenico, San 2
Giovanni in Monte, San Salvatore, San Martino Maggiore and San Francesco. From 1675, however, in accordance with Carrati’s will and testament, San Giovanni in Monte became the elected venue. The annual celebrations involved a considerable number of musicians; up to a hundred or so, according to the report penned by Charles Burney, the famous English music historian, composer and musician who visited Bologna in 1770, the year in which Mozart became a member of the Academy: “I stayed at Bologna two days longer than I intended, in order to be present at a kind of trial of skill among such composers of this city as are members of the celebrated Philharmonic Society, founded in 1666. There is an annual exhibition, or public performance, morning and evening, on the thirtieth of August, in the church of S. Giovanni in Monte… The band was very numerous, consisting of near a hundred voices and instruments. There are two large organs in the church, one on each side of the choir; and, besides these, a small one was erected for the occasion, in front, just behind the composer and singers. The performers were placed in a gallery, which formed a semi-circle round the choir… (the) music was grave and majestic…” As a member of the Accademia Filarmonica, Pietro Degli Antoni always occupied a prominent position, given the fact that he was elected principal musician in the years 1676, 1684, 1696, 1700, 1703 and 1718. Moreover, further proof of his standing in Bolognese music circles emerges clearly from his appointment as chapel master in three of the city’s churches: in 1680 at S. Maria Maggiore, from1686 to 1696 at S. Stefano, and from 1697 to 1719 at S. Giovanni in Monte. In 1703 he married the singer Maria Maddalena Musi, known as “La Mignatta”, whose career in Italian opera houses largely revolved around her interpretations of the works of Alessandro Scarlatti. Degli Antoni died in Bologna in 1720. His activity as a composer embraced a wide range of genres, from instrumental music to vocal works for chamber performance, for church services and for the opera stage. Apart from a collection of sonatas and versetti for the organ (including 3
a pastorale), his instrumental output comprises two collections of dances for the violin, and two of sonatas for solo violin and basso continuo that reveal a highly individual style that heralds aspects of the work of Corelli. Indeed, the two musicians were actually friends, according to the report relating to Corelli’s acceptance at the Accademia filarmonica in 1670: “wishing to prove his genius, to advance in the persuasion of certain of his friends, including Pietro Degli Antoni, (he) left Bologna”. The 12 short sonatas of Op.4 were printed in Bologna in 1676 and dedicated to Count Giovanni Carlo Ranuzzi. They consist of a variable number of movements in which brilliant, rapid instrumental passages alternate with slow sections described as affettuoso, aria posata, aria grave, and posato: titles that clearly reveal their debt to the vocal style. The fact that certain slow movements adopt the style of the recitative or the aria is a trait typical of Pietro Degli Antoni’s work; a distinctive feature rarely found in the compositions of his contemporaries that justifies defining the works as Cantate Strumentali, or Instrumental Cantatas. Ten years later, in 1686, Degli Antoni published a further collection of sonatas, the Op.5, dedicated to Francesco II, Duke of Modena. As the dedication declares, the publication of the sonatas followed shortly after the performance in Modena of the oratorio L’Innocenza Depressa (unfortunately the only score of this sort of work to have come down to us), which bears witness to the lively cultural exchange between the city of Bologna and the Este court.
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Alessandro Ciccolini took a Diploma in baroque violin and early performance techniques, counterpoint and composition at the A. Steffani Conservatoire in Castelfranco Veneto in 1993, then furthered his studies of the baroque violin at the Civica Scuola di Musica in Milan. In 1992 he toured with the European Community Baroque Orchestra, and in 2002/2003 taught a course on the history of chamber music performance techniques at the University of Musicology in Cremona. He currently teaches the baroque violin at the S. Giacomantonio Conservatoire in Cosenza. Ciccolini is also a composer and editor. His compositions for the Stift Rein near Graz (October 1994) met with widespread acclaim, as did his edition of Ziani’s oratorio “Assalonne Punito” (Naples 1997, Piacenza and Berlin 1998), played by the “Complesso Barocco” ensemble under Alan Curtis. In 2005 Curtis asked him to reconstruct the newly rediscovered Vivaldi opera “Motezuma”, which was recorded the following year by Deutsche Grammophon and published in 2010 by Baerenreiter. In 2006 the Spoleto Festival staged his edition of Vivaldi’s “Ercole sul Termodonte”, also conducted by Curtis. In 2007 his reconstruction of Domenico Scarlatti’s comic opera “Ottavia restituita al trono” was performed at the Victoria Eugenia Theatre in San Sebastian. In 2009 he conducted Vivaldi’s “Serenata à tre” at the Teatro Rossini in Pesaro, and the Brunetti and Pergolesi Stabat Maters at the “Progetto Orfeo: Festival Accademico Internazionale di Opera e Teatro”. In 2010 he composed a Laudate Dominum for soprano, chorus and orchestra performed by the Orfeo Futuro baroque orchestra and chorus during the “Anima Mea” tour of the cathedrals of Apulia. This was followed in 2011 with the premiere performance of his Salve Regina for soprano and strings. In 2012 his cantata “Ero e Leandro” for soprano and instruments was performed at the 15th Festival Musicale Estense “Grandezze e Meraviglie” in Modena and later by the “Anima Mea” festival in Molfetta. In 2012 his reconstruction of Vivaldi’s opera “Catone in Utica” conducted by Alan Curtis was recorded for the Naïve label and published in 2013 5
by Vivaldi Edition, and by Boosey & Hawkes in the USA. In 2013 he composed a “Lamentazione” for two voices and orchestra performed at the 45th Musica Antica festival in Urbino, the 2013 “Anima Mea” festival and the 15th edition of the “Grandezze e Meraviglie” festival in Modena. In December 2011 he conducted the first modern-day performances of G.B. Costanzi’s “Cantata a tre voci per la note del Santissimo natale, Roma 1723”, and in December 2012 the “Oratorio a sei voci, e chori di Angeli, Pastori, Demoni ‘Per la nascita del Redentore’ con stromenti di G.L. Lulier”, both of them as part of the “Italia Mia” Festival at Mauerbach in Austria. He has recorded for the Accent, Harmonia Mundi, Opus 111, Stradivarius, Tactus labels, and for ORF, the BBC, Rai1 and Rai 3. For the Symphonia label he recorded two CDs of first performances in modern times: in 1997 the violin sonatas of Aldebrando Subissati (1675); and in 1998 the Church Concertos for four instruments by Andrea Zani (1729). For Brilliant Classics he has recorded a CD of Albinoni’s Sonatas Op.IV (94189).
Coro d’Arcadia In late 17th century Rome, following the death of Christina of Sweden, famous composers and brilliant musicians of the calibre of Arcangelo Corelli and Bernardo Pasquini, along with the violinist Matteo Fornari, the cellist Giovanni Bononcini and the viola player Giovanni Lorenzo Luier, founded the “Coro d’Arcadia”. Famed for their stylistic elegance and mastery, their performances largely took place at the headquarters of the Arcadia association, on the Gianicolo, or in the residence of the Chigi family at Ariccia. In 2013 this remarkable ensemble inspired the baroque violinist and composer Alessandro Ciccolini to involve a group of fine musician friends to found a modern version of the illustrious historical precedent. Their aim is to persuade today’s listeners of the centrality of the “teoria degli affetti”, of the pursuit of beauty, expressiveness and poetry, by communicating the mood and emotions of composers who are distant in time, but still able to engage 6
the heart. In this they rely on philological rigour, their understanding of style and harmony, respect for original sources and a concept of sound that is as faithful as possible to the aesthetics of the baroque period and the instrumental ensembles typical of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Ghislierimusica – Collegio Ghislieri – Pavia Ghislierimusica was founded in 2006 to manage the music department of the historic Collegio Ghislieri in Pavia. The italian conductor Giulio Prandi is the artistic director. Ghislierimusica is a member of the board of REMA (European Early Music Network) and is a member of EFA, European Festivals Association. Ghislierimusica’s ensemble in residence, Ghislieri Choir & Consort, is regularly invited by major international festivals and European concert halls. Pavia Barocca, the international baroque concert series organized yearly by Ghislierimusica in partnership with the Municipality of Pavia, is one of the major cultural events of its region, and was awarded in 2015 with the label “EFFE - Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe”. Many concerts of Pavia Barocca are produced in residence at Ghislieri, both by emerging and establishd ensembles and artists; Ghislierimusica is a co-organizer of the “eeemerging - emerging european ensembles” project. Since its foundation, Ghislierimusica has produced 14 editions of festivals and concert cycles and over 280 concerts and live performances in Italy and Europe. musica.ghislieri.it In coproduction with Recording: 17-20 October 2014, Aula Magna del Collegio Ghislieri, Pavia, Italy Producer/sound engineer: Rino Trasi p & © 2016 Brilliant Classics
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