95202
DALLAPICCOLA CO M P L E T E S O N G S
Italian song texts available on www.brilliantclassics.com
Monica Piccinini soprano Alda Caiello soprano Elisabetta Pallucchi mezzo-soprano Roberto Abbondanza baritone Filippo Farinelli piano
Luigi Dallapiccola (1904–1975) CD1 50’59 Italian Songs of the 17th and 18th Centuries Volume 1 Realization of the Figured Bass and editing by Luigi Dallapiccola (International Music Company, 1961) 1. Antonio Caldara (1670-1736) - Selve amiche * 2. Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674) - Vittoria, mio cuore ° 3. Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) - Lasciatemi morire * 4. Alessandro Scarlatti (1659-1725) - Già il sole dal Gange # 5. Giulio Caccini (1546-1618) - Udite, amanti ° 6. Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676) - Sospiri di foco * 7. Giulio Caccini - Belle rose purpurine # 8. Andrea Falconieri (1590-1656) - Bella porta di rubini * 9. Emilio de’Cavalieri (1550-1602) - Monologo del “Tempo” ° 10. Francesco Durante (1684-1755) - Vergin, tutto amor * 11. Giuseppe Giordani (1744-1798) - Caro mio ben * 12. Giulio Caccini - Sfogava con le stelle * 13. Jacopo Peri (1560-1633) - Nel puro ardor ° 14. Claudio Monteverdi - Di misera Regina * from “Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria” 15. Alessandro Scarlatti - Sento nel core * Rencesvals, trois fragments de “La chanson de Roland” ° (Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, 1946) 16. I Molto deciso. Alla Marcia 17. II Il doppio più lento 18. III Molto lento
2’42 1’45 1’13 1’53 2’18 1’03 2’49 2’01 3’24 1’50 2’12 1’58 2’04 10’21 3’18
2’58 2’18 3’39
CD2 40’39 Italian Songs of the 17th and 18th centuries Volume 2 Realization of the Figured Bass and editing by Luigi Dallapiccola (International Music Company, 1961) 1. Giulio Caccini - Amarilli * 2’50 2. Giovanni Legrenzi (1625-1690) - Che fiero costume * 1’44 3. Francesco Durante - Danza, danza, fanciulla ° 1’11 4. Giulio Caccini - Occhi immortali # 3’56 5. Francesco Cavalli - Son ancor pargoletta # 2’26 6. Alessandro Scarlatti - O cessate di piagarmi * 1’52 7. Alessandro Stradella (1645-1682) - Se nel ben sempre incostante * 0’51 8. Andrea Falconieri - Occhietti amati ° 1’41 9. Alessandro Scarlatti - Toglietemi la vita ancor ° 1’45 10. Raffaello Rontani (15?-1622) - Caldi sospiri ° 2’19 11. Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1644) - Sonetto spirituale (Maddalena alla croce) * 3’07 12. Girolamo Frescobaldi - Sonetto spirituale in stile recitativo # 2’59 13. Claudio Monteverdi - Illustratevi, o cieli * (from “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria”) 2’01 14. Salvatore Rosa (1615-1673) - Vado ben spesso cangiando loco ° 2’41 15. Jacopo Peri - Gioite al canto mio ° (from “Euridice”) 0’54 Quattro liriche di Antonio Machado + (Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, 1948) 16. I Mosso; con vivacità 17. II Lento; flessibile 18. III Sostenutissimo 19. IV Quasi adagio; con amarezza
1’23 2’01 1’51 2’23
Monica Piccinini soprano # Alda Caiello soprano + Elisabetta Pallucchi mezzo-soprano * Roberto Abbondanza baritone ° Filippo Farinelli piano
Fondazione Antonini Spoleto 2
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The first two extant compositions by Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-1975) were written for voice and piano, which is the focus of this recording. Fiuri de tapo (1924-26) and Caligo (1926) are both settings of poems by Biagio Marin, the Italian poet who wrote in the dialect of his native Grado, a city in northeast Italy. When Dallapiccola’s Milanese publisher, Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, expressed the desire to publish these two works, the composer refused on the following grounds: “It’s an established fact that I discovered my path (or if you like my personality) relatively early, for our times, between the ages of 29 and 30. But, believe me, nothing could persuade me to make certain of my early efforts known to the public”; and again: “I will have all handwritten scores prior to my first published work destroyed; because I find it too painful to imagine such immature works of mine in circulation”. And when by the same token I asked Annalibera Dallapiccola, the composer’s daughter, if I could take a look at the songs with the idea of recording them, she replied: “[…] I am sorry to disappoint you regarding Fiuri de tapo and Caligo. My father made it quite clear that he did not want to have the unpublished works published or performed.” This anecdote speaks eloquently of Dallapiccola’s rigor and coherence. He was one of the most earnest and committed composers of the 1900s, intent on pursuing what was new and on perfecting his own personal style during the course of his whole lifetime. Moreover, he was also devoted to Musique engagée, pledging human and social support for freedom as an unalienable human value. The great triptych comprising the Canti di prigionia (1938-41), the single-act Il prigioniero (1943-48) and the Canti di liberazione (1951-55) bear witness to his tenacity and engagement. However, the true summa of his stylistic endeavour within the sphere of dodecaphonic music is Ulisse (1960-1968), an opera in a prologue and two acts based on a libretto that he wrote himself. Dallapiccola paid constant attention to the voice, in both chamber music and opera, because singing was essential to his very concept of music. The voice was the focus of his first two compositions, and of his last finished work, the Commiato (1972) for soprano and chamber ensemble on a text attributed to Brunetto Latini. In thus coming full circle, the composer wrote a great many vocal compositions. 4
Those for chorus, either a cappella or with orchestra, include the Sei cori di Michelangelo Buonarroti il Giovane (1932-36) in three two-piece series, Requiescant (1957-58) on texts from St. Mathew, Oscar Wilde e James Joyce, and Tempus destruendi/Tempus aedificandi (1970-71); the series of songs for voice and instrumental ensemble include Tre Laudi (1936-37) on texts from the Laudario dei battuti di Modena, Liriche greche (1942-45) on poems by Sapho, Anacreon, and Alcaeus in the fresh new translation by Salvatore Quasimodo, Goethe-Lieder (1953) on texts from Goethe’s Divan and Cinque canti (1956) on various texts, also translated by Quasimodo; and lastly, apart from the works already mentioned, his output for voice and orchestra comprised Volo di notte (1937-38), a single act inspired by the novel of the same name by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, on a libretto by the composer, Job (1950), a sacred music drama on texts by Dallapiccola himself, based on The Book of Job, and An Mathilde (1955), a cantata on poems by Heinrich Heine. The aim of this overview is to give an idea of Dallapiccola’s quest for demanding subjects and texts, often found in ancient and sacred literature. Material of this sort was both poetic and dramatic, and could support and indeed shed light on the development of the principles of dodecaphonic technique, serialism in music and the evolution of the composer’s own style. As time went by, each work embodied new aspects of his approach to composition. While his earlier pieces comprised both modal and tonal material, as well as dodecaphonic elements, the last works reveal total freedom from any vestige of modal and tonal music. Foremost among these mature works is Ulisse, which reveals Dallapiccola’s admiration for the composers of the second Viennese school, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. Dallapiccola only wrote two original works for voice and piano: the song cycles Rencesvals (1946) and Quattro liriche di Antonio Machado (1948). The former belongs to a series of works commissioned by the famous French baritone Pierre Bernac, when the composer was working on the score for Il Prigioniero. At the time Bernac had been working regularly with the pianist and composer Francis Poulenc, with whom he had achieved, according to contemporary 5
critics, a perfect fusion of voice and keyboard in performances of great intensity and truth that were totally free of exhibitionism. Although Bernac had expressed the desire for lyrics by Michelangelo, Dallapiccola decided to compose settings for three fragments of the Chanson de Roland in Old French. The title Rencesvals (Roncevaux) is the name of the high mountain pass in the Pyrenees, on the border between France and Spain, where according to legend Roland was defeated by the Basques and the Moors. Essential to this choice of text is Roland’s declared love for “la dulce France”, his desire to pay homage to that land, and his rueful perception that war had made Italy an adversary. The verse thus allowed the composer to eco the political events of his own times. The composition was completed within a relative short time, in January 1946, pursuing a creative process that had something in common with Proust’s narrative technique. As Dallapiccola himself declared: “[…] the difference between the way the characters are presented in the classic novel and the approach adopted by Proust corresponds to the difference between the exposition of the classical sonata and the process inherent to serialism. We could find the dodecaphonic series condensed into a single chord comprising the twelve tones of the tempered chromatic scale, or in two chords of six tones, or in four chords of three tones […] or indeed in six two-tone chords.” The piece begins with three four-tone chords in ff that contain all the material from which the development of the dodecaphonic figure of the three first verses of the song derives. Despite this, Dallapiccola later had to explain that Rencesvals was not a typically dodecaphonic work, but rather studies pertaining to the chromatic whole. In his view, the fact that Camillo Togni managed to make a rigorous dodecaphonic analysis of the piece was simply due to chance, since it was an “unwitting construction”. The composer’s claims make particular sense in the third song, which does not present any real dodecaphonic series, but rather certain remains of the tonal system reminiscent of triadic structures, with a number of major and minor chords. The work is dedicated to Bernac and Poulenc, who played in the premiere performance on Flemish radio, broadcast from Brussels on 19 December 1946, as well as the first public performance, which took place in Paris on 7 May 1947, and on numerous concert tours, always to great public and critical acclaim. 6
Dallapiccola completed the Quattro liriche di Antonio Machado in October 1948, during his stay in Venice for the Contemporary Music Festival. The official date for the composition is 13 September 1948, a symbolic homage to Arnold Schoenberg, to coincide with his 74th birthday. As Dallapiccola pointed out, however, it was also the day on which Christopher Columbus, back in 1492, discovered to his surprise that after sailing for forty days his compass pointed to a different north. Schoenberg too had realized that north does not always, in all circumstances or latitudes, coincide with the tonic of school textbooks. Once he had finished the score for Il Prigioniero, with the Quattro liriche di Antonio Machado, Dallapiccola could at last return to perfecting the dodecaphonic technique that he had set aside while busy with the commission. Here again, not all the melodic and harmonic developments derive from a single series, though they do reveal a clear progression: of the four pieces in the cycle, the outer two, Nos. 1 and 4, introduce a new series that derives from the main series. Only No.3 is unrelated in dodecaphonic structure to the other three. Likewise, at the beginning of Rencesvals, the material is condensed in chords consisting of a series of six bichords, enunciated in the piano introduction. Clearly this was not the only solution of its sort in the composer’s overall output. The return in No.4 to features belonging to No.1, on the other hand, bears witness to Dallapiccola’s desire to make the songs cyclical in form, which became common practice for him in his later works. Apart from these technical aspects relating to the development of dodecaphonic composition, the songs are also important from the literary point of view. Meeting Machado was seminal for Dallapiccola, to the extent that the climax of the cycle in the middle of No.3, “Señor, ya estamos solos mi corazón y el mar”, was to become a sort of thread connecting two important works that also culminated in a paraphrase of the same verse: the Prigioniero in the opera of the same name says “Solo. Son solo un’altra volta. Solo coi miei pensieri”; and Calipso in Ulisse says “Son soli un’altra volta il tuo cuore e il mare”. This reveals the particular expedient of using self-quotes from both music and literature, a technique that was to become increasingly important in the composer’s mature works. Indeed, Ulisse is like the apotheosis of Dallapiccola’s output, not only because it exemplifies what he achieved 7
in terms of research, but also on account of content and symbolism. Although the Quattro liriche di Antonio Machado were premiered on Flemish Radio in Brussels (3 December 1948), with the soprano Mariette Martin accompanied by Dallapiccola at the piano, a dispute with the poet’s heirs regarding copyright delayed publication until October 1949. The first public performance took place at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London on 14 December 1948, with the soprano Emelie Hooke. Thanks to their deeply expressive nature and the complete symbiosis between poetry and music, the Liriche di Antonio Machado have probably been performed more often than any other work by Dallapiccola, which may account for the fact that in 1964 the composer wrote a new version for soprano and chamber orchestra, premiered in Braunschweig on 27 November of that same year. In reference to the relationship between text and music, it may be helpful to report what the composer himself declared on various occasions: he was wont to write out the poems that interested him by hand, and keep a copy in his wallet, sometimes for years, so that bit by bit he learned them by heart, savouring every word and syllable. Without this gradual process of absorption he did not believe it was possible to achieve the desired balance between music and verse. This set also comprises the first ever recording of the thirty early arias for which Dallapiccola arranged the bass figures towards the end of the 1950s, directing the edition for the International Music Company in New York (1961). We know little about the genesis of the “transcription”, “revision” and “realization” that the composer also undertook for other works (Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Carish critical edition, 1941, and a new critical edition published in 1972; Six Sonatas for cello and piano by Vivaldi, revision and arrangement of the bass figures for the International Music Company, 1955). However we do know that the composer’s interest in early music dated back much earlier, to the time when he was transcribing Monteverdi’s Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria, and arranging it for the modern stage (ESZ, 1941-42). In those years he was deeply involved in musicological studies that overshadowed his own creative work. He consulted numerous transcriptions of early music, especially those of Malipiero/Frescobaldi and Webern/Bach, absorbing Busoni’s 8
approach to arranging early music and taking part in the Settimana Musicale Senese of 1940. He was also involved in the debate surrounding the editions of compositions by the two Scarlattis, studying the sources and in particular the manuscript kept in the National Library in Vienna, which he compared with the transcription by Vincent d’Indy that was available in those years. Clearly all this study provided him with a very secure grounding, so that he was able to establish his own idea of how reductions and arrangements should be made, even if this meant effecting substantial cuts in Monteverdi’s original score. The idea was to achieve an essential, practical arrangement, shorn of superfluity and free of excessive philological niceties. Granted, today a number of studies provide further insights into the score, but at the time Dallapiccola’s version of Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria met with widespread acclaim, constituting the foundation for all his later works concerning the figure of Ulysses. The two Monteverdi pieces included in this CD set, Di misera Regina and Illustratevi, o cieli, derive from his 1942 version of the work. The other arias, some of which also come from operas, are the works of famous Italian composers such as Caccini, Cavalli, Scarlatti, Falconieri, Carissimi, Caldara, Durante, Stradella, Frescobaldi and Peri. The handling of harmony and form reveals the same rigour and stylistic severity found in the Monteverdi arrangement. They are brilliantly dry and essential, revealing intelligent use of counterpoint and canon development, along with exquisite taste for instrumental timbre and polyrhythm. All these pieces are studded with extremely precise, detailed agogic and dynamic accents. While this may shed light on performance procedures typical of the period, it certainly suggests that Dallapiccola’s approach was closer to early 20th century contemporary taste than it was to the various collections that distorted the music by tending more towards Romanticism. A case in point was the assortment compiled in 1890 by Alessandro Parisotti, which is still in use to this day in Italian Conservatoires, just as it was at the time of Dallapiccola. This is a repertoire that merits a place alongside Britten’s arrangements of Purcell and other famous English composers. Dallapiccola did much more than write the basso continuo part. Thanks to his musicological studies, his unique artistic taste and 9
his understanding of the great composers of the early 20th century, he was able to breathe new life into early music, allowing listeners to perceive it in fresh, new terms that ring entirely true. © Filippo Farinelli Translation by Kate Singleton
Thanks to: Fondazione Antonini Spoleto, Maria Chiara Verrigni, Maurizio Catarinelli, Monica Masci and Giovanna Durante
Recording: 24 May & 4-12 November 2013, 8 February & 22 September 2014, Auditorium Federico Cesi, Acquasparta, Italy Sound engineer & recording producer: Luca Ricci (l.c.studiomobile@libero.it) Editing: Filippo Farinelli Piano: Yahama C7 Cover image: Philippa Baile - & © 2015 Brilliant Classics
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Monica Piccinini Born in Reggio Emilia, Italy, after a degree in violin she started to study opera singing under Franca Mattiucci and Elena Kriatchko, obtaining a degree with honours. She perfected her vocal technique in the Baroque repertoire in master classes held by Rossana Bertini, and in Lied and vocal music of the 1900s under Eric Werba and Dorothy Dorow. She made her stage debut singing Musica and Euridice in a production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Teatro Real in Madrid under Jordi Savall. Next came the roles of Morgana in Handel’s Alcina at the Opéra Royal de Versailles under C. Rousset, Bellezza in Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Valletto-Fortuna in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Teatro Colon in Salamanca under Rinaldo Alessandrini, Amore in Cavalli’s La virtù degli strali d’amore at the Teatro Malibran in Venice under Fabio Biondi, Claudia in Scarlatti’s Massimo Puppieno at the Teatro Politeama in Palermo under Fabio Biondi, Argene in Pergolesi’s L’Olimpiade at the Theatre in Krakow under Ottavio Dantone, Minerva-Fortuna-Melanto in Monteverdi’s Ritorno di Ulisse in patria under Rinaldo Alessandrini, Clori in Handel’s Clori, Dorino e Amore with the Münchner Rundfunk Orchestra in Munich, Vagaus in Vivaldi’s Juditha triumphans under Ottavio Dantone. She is also appreciated for her performances of sacred music, including Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Mass in C major, Boccherini’s Stabat Mater, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, J.S. Bach’s Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio, and B minor Mass, Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Vivaldi’s Magnificat, Hasse’s Sant’Elena al Calvario and Il verbo in carne, Caldara’s Morte e sepoltura di Cristo, etc. She works regularly with important ensembles and orchestras such as: Les Talents Lyriques, Concerto Italiano, Europa Galante, Accademia Bizantina, La Venexiana, 11
Al Aire Español , Concerto Romano, Concerto Palatino, El Concierto Español, the Chamber-Orchestra of Lausanne, Münchner Rundfunk Orchestra, Orquestra barroca de la Universidad de Salamanca, Hespèrion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya. Recent engagements include an opera performance as Damigella in Monteverdi’s Incoronazione di Poppea at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan 2015 under Rinaldo Alessandrini and Bob Wilson. She has recorded for Naïve, Opus 111, Stradivarius, Tactus, Symphonia, Dynamic, Fuga Libera, Christophorus, Deutschlandfunk and Brilliant Classics.
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Alda Caiello Alda Caiello completed her vocal and piano studies at the Perugia Conservatoire. Her broad repertoire ranges from ancient music to contemporary compositions, and she has worked with conductors such as Frans Brüggen, Myung-Whun Chung, Valery Gergiev, Arturo Tamayo, Peter Keuschnig, Massimo de Bernart, Pascal Rophé, Wayne Marshall, Christopher Franklin, Stephen Ausbury, Peter Rundel, Lucas Vis, Pietro Borgonovo, Renato Rivolta, Marcello Panni, Fabio Maestri, Marco Angius, and Emilio Pomarico. She is regularly invited by La Biennale Musica and Teatro La Fenice in Venezia, Teatro alla Scala in Milano, Bologna Festival, Salzburger Festspiele, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Milano Musica, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova, Sagra Musicale Malatestiana in Rimini, Festival di Orvieto, Festival of Contemporary Music in Barcelona, Festival d’Automne in Paris, Festival Wien Modern, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, ORT Orchestra della Toscana, Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, München Biennale, Festival di Ravenna. In 2011 she created the role of La stilista in the premiere of L’Italia del destino by Luca Mosca, staged at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where she gave a solo recital “Nuovo canzoniere popolare”, twenty new songs written for her by twenty Italian composers. “Nuovo canzoniere popolare” met with great acclaim in Milano and Turin for MiTo 2011. In September 2011 she took part in the creation of Leggenda, a new opera by Alessandro Solbiati, at the Teatro Regio in Turin; then she interpreted Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Berg’s Lirische Suite in Paris, Cité de la Musique and at the Opéra de Lille. In 2012 she sang Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine in Palermo, and was acclaimed for her performance in Verona of Il suono giallo by Schnittke and Maderna’s Il processo. She sang Pierrot Lunaire with the Prazak Quartet on a European tour; in September 2012 she sang a staged performance of Recital for Cathy by Luciano Berio 13
and Siete Canciones by Falla/Berio in Hamburg. Her 2013 highlights included Berio’s Sequenza in a special concert in Milan’s new Museo del Novecento, Berio Folksongs at the Teatro Regio in Turin with Giananrdrea Noseda, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Berio Folksongs at the Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma. In 2014 she took part in Mauro Montalbetti’s new opera Il sogno di una cosa in Milan, Brescia and Reggio Emilia. She also sang Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine in Ravenna, in a production that will be revived in Lucca and Piacenza. In 2015 she will perform in Il suono giallo, a new opera by Alessandro Solbiati, in a new production at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna. Alda Caiello often sings Luciano Berio’s Folksongs: in Milano conducted by Berio himself, in Rotterdam conducted by Valerij Gergiev, and at Vienna’s Musikverein with the Kontrapunkte Ensemble conducted by Peter Keuschnig. Moreover, she played the main role in Berio’s Passaggio at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova, directed by Daniele Abbado. The Niewe Ensemble invited her to sing compositions by Berio in Utrecht and Maastricht. She took part in the Festival of Amsterdam and Utrecht with the Atlas Ensemble. Alda Caiello was chosen by Adriano Guarnieri for the world première of Medea at the Teatro La Fenice in Venezia, sang in the world première of La Passione secondo Matteo at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and, for the Centenary celebration of the Venice Biennale, performed Quare Tristis. She was one of the main characters of the world première of Adriano Guarnieri’s La Pietra di diaspro at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, at the Teatro Nazionale and at Ravenna Festival 2007 (director Cristina Mazzavillani Muti). With the Icarus Ensemble she sang the main role in the world première of Guarnieri’s Tenebrae at the Ravenna Festival in June 2010, and later at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, in October 2010. She interpreted Marco di Bari’s Camera Obscura, Luigi Nono’s Io, frammento di Prometeo (recorded by RAI Radio SAT), Bussotti’s Rara Requiem and Kancheli’s Exil with the Ensemble Alter Ego. She was invited by Umbria Jazz for Treemonisha by Scott Joplin, has interpreted Giorgio Gaslini’s and Battista Lena’s scores, and has taken part in jazz festivals such as the Saalfelden Festival, the Amiens Festival and the Roccella Festival. For the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and for the Accademia 14
Nazionale di Santa Cecilia she has interpreted works by Manzoni, Henze’s Novae de infinito laudes, Stravinskij’s Les Noces, Luca Lombardi’s Vanitas and Ligeti’s Requiem, conducted by Myung-Whun Chung. At the Paris Festival d’Automne she sung the main role in Perseo e Andromeda by Sciarrino, in Barcelona she sung compositions by Ivan Fedele, in London she performed at the Wigmore Hall in a recital devoted to Dallapiccola, Malipiero, Wolf Ferrari and Pizzetti. In Florence, with the Orchestra della Toscana, she sang Lucrezio: oratorio materialistico by Luca Lombardi. With the duo Canino-Ballista, she took part in the Dallapiccola celebrations in Turin, Florence and Lisbon. She has often performed Francesco Pennisi’s chamber music. In Roma, for the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Alda Caiello took part in the Progetto Pollini with the Arnold Schoenberg Chor conducted by Erwin Ortner singing Trame d’ombre by Giacomo Manzoni. At Bolzano’s Teatro Comunale, she sang in the world première of the opera Axel Brüchke Langer. A Composed Portrait by Giovanni Verrando. Moreover, she interpreted Maderna’s Satyricon for Mittelfest at Cividale del Friuli. In Rovigo, she was “La cantante vagneriana” in the opera Anton by Emilio Scogna, conducted by the composer. She recorded music by Fabio Vacchi for the sound track of Ermanno Olmi’s film Cantando dietro i paraventi. For Settembre Musica, with the Orchestra Nazionale della RAI, she sang Improvisation I and Improvisation II by Boulez (conductor Marcello Panni) and works by Castiglioni and Bosco (conductor Arturo Tamayo). In September 2006 she sang Cantus planus by Castiglioni at Milano Musica and Le Marteau sans maître by Boulez at Bologna Festival. At the Rome Festival she sang Giacinto Scelsi’s Khoom, and in Florence Dallapiccola’s Commiato with the Contemporartensemble. www.aldacaiello.com
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Elisabetta Pallucchi Elisabetta Pallucchi, mezzosoprano, was born and lives in Spoleto. She graduated in singing with full honours at the Pescara Conservatoire, and later in Music Teaching at the Conservatoire in Perugia. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Baroque Singing, having studied with Gloria Banditelli at the ISSM “G. Briccialdi “ in Terni, where she was awarded full marks and special distinction. She has attended numerous advanced courses in early repertoire and chamber music held by Susanna Rigacci, Elena Cecchi Fedi, Gloria Banditelli, Andrea Marcon, Silvana Bazzoni Bartoli and Marinella Pennicchi. Since 2004 she has mainly focused on early music, with occasional forays into romantic and contemporary repertoires, and opera. She has performed in national and international festivals such as the Festival of Nations (Città di Castello, Italy), the Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte (Montepulciano, Italy), OperaInCanto (Terni, Italy), Festival Segni Barocchi (Foligno, Italy), Festival Transeuropeen (Rouen, France), Emilia Romagna Festival, Piano Festival Spoleto, Hoors Sommaopera (Sweden), TLR Classica (Macerata, Italy), Festival dei Due Mondi (Spoleto, Italy), Festival Villa Solomei (Perugia, Italy), Menuhin Festival in Gstaad (Switzerland), Festival de Ushuaia (Argentina), Brinkhall Summer Concerts (Turku, Finland), Waterloo Festival (London), Festival International Orgues Historiques (Breil sur Roya, France). At Christmas 2007, she held a concert in Rome for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. In April 2010, during the sixth edition of the International Festival of Ushuaia (Argentina), she sang the solo part in Mozart’s Requiem K.626 in the presence of 16
President Cristina Fernandez for the celebrations of 200 years of the Republic of Argentina, a performance that was broadcast on national television. She has sung several important operatic roles including Dorabella and Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte by Mozart), Medoro (Orlando by Handel), Dido (Dido and Aeneas by Purcell), la Madre (Der Jasager by K. Weill), Ernestina (L’Occasione fa il ladro by Rossini), Nerina (Don Chisciotte by Padre Martini). Her concert performances have included the first modern revivial of Il Teatro Armonico Spirituale by Anerio; Historia di Ezechia and Historia di Jephte by Carissimi; the Stabat Mater and Salve Regina by Pergolesi; the Magnificat, Nisi Dominus, Beatus Vir and Gloria by Vivaldi; the Easter Oratorio, Magnificat and St John Passion by J. S. Bach; the Messiah, Dixit Dominus, Nisi Dominus, Dettingen Te Deum by Handel; Missa in Tempore Belli by Haydn; Salmo Vigesimoprimo, Salmo Trigesimosesto from dall’Estro Poetico-Armonico by Benedetto Marcello; l’Oratoire de Noël by Saint-Saëns; the Requiem, Vesperae Solemnes de Confessore, Vesperae Solennes de Dominica, Missa brevis KV 140, Missa Brevis KV 275, Litaniae de venerabili altaris Sacramento KV 243, Regina coeli KV 276, Notturni and Krönungsmesse by Mozart; the Te Deum by Charpentier; the Petite Messe Solennelle by Rossini; the Mass in C major Op.169 by Rheinberger. She has worked with musicians such as Jan Joost van Elburg, Brian Schembri, Fabio Ciofini, Luis Bacalov, Jorge Uliarte, Willi Derungs, Fabio Maestri, Simon Over and Ricardo Alejandro Luna. She has recorded for Radio Vaticana. She is a member of the Accademia Barocca Wilhelm Hermans. She divides her time between an intense concert schedule and her teaching engagements.
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Roberto Abbondanza Born in Rome, he studied with the soprano Isabel Gentile, then focused on the Lied repertoire at the “Mozarteum” in Salzburg and at the “Musikhochschule” in Cologne under Hartmut Höll. After further specialization in early and baroque music, he has worked regularly with J. Savall, F. Biondi, S. Preston, A. Curtis, C. Mackerras, R. Alessandrini, S. Vartolo, G. Garrido, F.M. Bressan. He has sung under conductors such as M.W. Chung, Z. Mehta, B. Bartoletti, G. Noseda, D. Gallegari, M. Tabachnik, E. Morricone, M. Panni, E. Pidò, V. Spivakov, A. Tamayo, J. Webb, O. Wellber, A. Zedda, Z. Pesko, G. Kuhn, P. Olmi, P. Morandi and directors like D. Abbado, Pier’Alli, G. Barberio Corsetti, R. Carsen, G. Cobelli, G. Gallione, W. Le Moli, V. Malosti, M. Martone, P. Pizzi, J.P. Ponnelle, G. Pressburger, M. Scaparro, G. Vacis, La Fura dels Baus, F. Ripa di Meana, H. De Ana, D. Michieletto. His opera and concert performances in Italy have included venues such as La Scala in Milan, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia and the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, National Orchestra of RAI, La Fenice and Biennale Festival in Venice, the Arena in Verona, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, and the Teatro Comunale in Bologna. Abroad he has sung at the Salle Garnier of the Opera in Monte Carlo, in Paris, at the opera houses in Bordeaux, Lyon, Nice, Lisbon, Barcelona and Madrid, at the Arriaga Theatre in Bilbao, in Cologne, Vienna, Oslo, Brussels, Budapest, Toronto, New York, Washington, at the Colon in Buenos Aires, at the Teatro Municipal in São Paulo, the Opera in Mexico City, in Istanbul, at the Tokyo City Opera, and in Kyoto, Singapore, Taipei etc. His repertoire also includes modern and contemporary music, including compositions by J. Adams, L. L. Bernstein, B. Britten, L. Dallapiccola, G. Ligeti, J. 18
MacMillan, B. Maderna, L. Nono, G. Petrassi, A. Schoenberg, I. Strawinsky and premieres of C. Ambrosini, L. Bacalov, G. Battistelli, C. Boccadoro, S. Bussotti, S. Colasanti, M. D’Amico, F. Del Corno, I. Fedele, L. Francesconi, B. Furrer, C. Galante, P. Glass, G. Manzoni, E. Morricone, L. Mosca, G. Sinopoli, F. Vacchi. He has recorded with labels such as Virgin Classics, Opus 111, Naxos, Stradivarius, Tactus and Foné. info@robertoabbondanza.it
Filippo Farinelli Italian pianist Filippo Farinelli studied with Dalton Baldwin, Irwin Gage and Charles Spencer, winning several International Chamber Music Competitions. He has worked with musicians such as Mark Milhofer, Mario Caroli, David Brutti, Melissa Phelps, performing in various festivals, including the Sagra Musicale Umbra, the Ljubljana Festival and the Musicarivafestival. He has recorded a number of CDs for Brilliant Classics and Tactus. He is Professor of Vocal Chamber Music at the Conservatoire in Lecce (Italy). www.filippofarinelli.com
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