musica Dei donum
CD reviews
Italian music for strings from the 17th century
[I] "Seicento! - The virtuoso early Italian violin"
Enrico Onofri, violin
Imaginarium Ensemble
rec: June 21 - 24, 2019, Mondovi, Sala Ghislieri
Passacaille - PAS1070 (© 2019) (74'43")
Liner-notes: E/D/F/I
Cover & track-list
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Giovanni Battista FONTANA (c1589-c1630):
Sonata VI à violino solo [7];
Giovanni Girolamo KAPSPERGER (c1580-1651):
Sinfonia XIII à un canto [2];
Biagio MARINI (1594-1663):
Sonata III per il violino solo Variata [4];
Sonata IV per il violino per sonar con due corde [4];
Bartolomeo MONTALBANO (c1598-1651):
Sinfonia IV Geloso a violino solo [5];
Giovanni Antonio PANDOLFI MEALLI (fl 1660-1669):
Sonata I in e minor, op. 4,1 'La Bernabea' [9];
Francesco ROGNONI TAEGGIO (c1585-c1624):
Io son ferito hai laso (Palestrina) [3];
Bartolomeo DE SELMA Y SALAVERDE (fl 1613-1638):
Canzon III soprano solo [6];
Alessandro STRADELLA (1639-1682):
[Sonata a violino solo, violone e basso]
Marco UCCELLINI (1603-1680):
Sonata III a violino solo [10];
Sonata IV a violino solo detta la Hortensia virtuosa [8];
Aurelio VIRGILIANO (c1540-c1600):
Ricercata per flauto et ogni altro istromento [1]
Sources:
[1] Aurelio Virgiliano, Il Dolcimelo, 1600?;
[2] Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger, Libro primo di sinfonie a 4, 1615;
[3] Francesco Rognoni Taeggio, Selva de varii passaggi, 1620;
[4] Biagio Marini, Sonate, symphonie, canzoni, passe'mezzi, baletti, corenti, gagliarde e retornelli, a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 voci, per ogni sorte d'instrumenti, op. 8, 1629;
[5] Bartolomeo Montalbano, Sinfonie ad uno, e doi violini, a doi, e trombone, con il partimento per l’organo, con alcune a quattro viole, 1629;
[6] Bartolomeo de Selma y Salaverde, Canzoni fantasie et correnti da suonar, 1638;
[7] Giovanni Battista Fontana, Sonate a 1. 2. 3. per il violino, o cornetto, fagotto, chitarone, violoncino o simile altro istromento, 1641;
[8] Marco Uccellini, Sonate, correnti et arie da farsi con diversi stromenti sì da camera, come da chiesa, à uno, à due, & à tre, op. 4, 1645;
[9] Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli, Sonate a violino solo per chiesa e camera, op. 4, 1660;
[10] Marco Uccellini, Ozio regio: compositioni armoniche sopra il violino e diversi altri strumenti, 1660
Alessandro Palmeri, cello;
Simone Vallerotonda, archlute, theorbo;
Federica Bianchi, harpsichord, organ
[II] "Quattro violini a Venezia"
Clematis
rec: Oct 2018, Centeilles (F), Église Notre-Dame
Ricercar - RIC 404 (© 2019) (64'35")
Liner-notes: E/D/F
Cover, track-list & booklet
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Giovanni Battista BUONAMENTE (c1595-1642):
Sonata I a quattro violini ]5];
Dario CASTELLO (bef. 1600-1644):
Sonata XVII in ecco. Per 2 cornetti e 2 violini [3];
Francesco CAVALLI (1602-1676):
Canzon a 3, 2 violini e violoncino [8];
Giovanni Battista FONTANA (c1589-c1630):
Sonata XVI a tre violini [6];
Giovanni GABRIELI (c1555-1612):
Canzon II a 6 (C 196) [2];
Sonata XXI con tre violini (C 214) [2];
Biagio MARINI (1594-1665):
Canzon I per quattro violini [4];
Capriccio per sonare il violino con tre corde a modo di lira [4];
Sonata IV per sonar con due corde [4];
Sonata in Ecco con tre violini [4];
Salomone ROSSI (1570-1630):
Sinfonia a 5 & a 3 si placet [1];
Sonata a quattro violini e doi chitarroni [7];
Marco UCCELLINI (1603-1680):
Sinfonia XVII a quatro violini [9];
Sinfonia XIX a tre violini [9]
Sources:
[1] Salomone Rossi, Il secondo libro delle Sinfonie & Gagliardi a tre voci per sonar due viole & un Chitarrone con alcuni delle dette a quattro et cinque et alcuni Canzoni per sonar a quattro nel fine, 1608;
[2] Giovanni Gabrieli, Canzoni et sonate a 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, & 22 voci, per sonar con ogni sorte de instrumenti, con il basso per l'organo, 1615;
[3] Dario Castello, Sonate concertate in stil moderno per sonar nel organo overo spineta con diversi instrumenti, libro secondo, 1629;
[4] Biagio Marini, Sonate, symphonie, canzoni, passe'mezzi, baletti, corenti, gagliarde e retornelli, a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 voci, per ogni sorte d'instrumenti, op. 8, 1629;
[5] Giovanni Battista Buonamente, Sonate, et canzoni a due, tre, quattro, cinque, et a sei voci, libro sesto, 1636;
[6] Giovanni Battista Fontana, Sonate a 1. 2. 3. per il violino, o cornetto, fagotto, chitarone, violoncino o simile altro istromento, 1641;
[7] Salomone Rossi, Il quarto libro de varie sonate, sinfonie, gagliarde, brandi, e corrente per sonar due violini et un chitarrone o altro stromento, 1642;
[8] Francesco Cavalli, Musiche sacre concernenti messa, e salmi concertati con istromenti, imni, antifone et sonate, 1656;
[9] Marco Uccellini, Sinfonici concerti brevi e facili, op. 9, 1667
Stéphanie de Failly, Amandine Solano, Lathika Vithanage, Catherine Plattner, Kee Soon Bosseaux, violin;
Sarah Vvan Oudenhove, Marion Martineau, viola da gamba;
Jérôme Huille, cello;
Evolène Kiener, bassoon;
Bérangère Sardin, Claire Piganiol, harp;
Quito Gato, theorbo, guitar;
Brice Sailly, harpsichord, organ;
Yoann Moulin, organ
[III] "Affetti Musicali - Venetian music of the Seicento"
Ensemble Colorito
rec: May 31 - June 3, 2018, Usingen (D), Laurentiuskirche
Coviello Classics - COV92013 (© 2019) (69'32")
Liner-notes: E/D
Cover & track-list
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Giovanni Battista BUONAMENTE (c1595-1642):
Sonata II a 3 violini;
Belloronfonte CASTALDI (1580-1649):
Arpeggiato a mio modo;
Dario CASTELLO (bef. 1600-1644):
Sonata IV;
Sonata X;
Giovanni LEGRENZI (1626-1690):
Sonata La Benaglia;
Biagio MARINI (1594-1665):
Sonata 3 'La Foscarina' [2];
Sonata sopra La Monica [3];
Michelangelo ROSSI (1601/02-1656):
Toccata IX [1];
Alessandro STRADELLA (1639-1682):
Sinfonia XXII;
Francesco TURINI (1589-1656):
Sonata 2° tuono a 3;
Marco UCCELLINI (1603-1680):
Aria sopra la Bergamasca [4];
Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741):
Concerto for cello, strings and bc in c minor (RV 401)
Sources:
[1] Michelangelo Rossi, Toccate e Correnti d'Intavolatura d'organo e cembalo, [n.d.]
Biagio Marini, [2] Affetti Musicali, Opera Prima. Nella quale si contiene, Symfonie, Canzon, Sonate Balletti, Arie, Brandi, Gagliarde & Corenti à 1. 2. 3. Acomodate da potersi suornar con Violini Corneti & con ogni sorte de strumenti musicali, 1617;
[3] Biagio Marini, Sonate, symphonie, canzoni, passe'mezzi, baletti, corenti, gagliarde e retornelli, a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 voci, per ogni sorte d'instrumenti, op. 8, 1629;
[4] Marco Uccellini, Sonate, arie et correnti a 2. e. 3. Per sonare con diversi instromenti, op. 3, 1642
Steffen Hamm, Monika Nussbächer, Donata Wilken, violin;
Katrin Ziegler, cello;
Johannes Stähle, violone;
Toshinori Ozaki, theorbo, guitar;
Ute Christina Riemer, harpsichord, organ
Few periods in music history exert such a strong attraction on performers and music lovers alike than the first half of the 17th century, and especially the Italian music written at the time. It saw the birth of opera, music for solo voices and a large repertoire of instrumental music, often of great technical virtuosity. Add to that the sense of experimentation, the interest in the expression of human emotions (affetti), the contrast between light and dark (chiaroscuro) and the use of techniques like diminution and variation, and one understands that this was a time of excitement.
The discs under review here approach the repertoire written at this time from different angles. Enrico Onofri focuses on music for violin and basso continuo, whereas the two other discs include music for instrumental ensemble, confining themselves to scorings for strings.
In the respective programmes, we meet largely the same composers, as they dominated the music scene at the time. That said, there are certainly collections of music or single compositions which are largely overlooked. The three discs mostly include a mixture of pretty familiar pieces and compositions which are not that often performed and recorded.
One of the most productive composers of instrumental music was Biagio Marini. A considerable part of his oeuvre has been lost, and what has come down to us includes vocal and instrumental music. It is the latter which receives most attention. The best-known collection is the Op. 8, whose title includes two words that characterise the music of his time: "curiose e moderne inventioni". The composers of the time were very aware that they explored new territory, and that certainly goes for Marini, who played several instruments, but whose favourite instrument was the violin. He explores new techniques, such as double and triple stopping and scordatura. Double stopping is the name of the game in his Sonata IV per il violino per sonar con due corde: the violinist has to play on two strings simultaneously. Marini was one of those composers who wrote music for a specific instrument. Enrico Onofri's programme includes several other pieces which refer to the violin expressis verbis, such as Giovanni Battista Fontana, Marco Uccellini and Bartolomeo Montalbani. Uccellini was even the first who published a book of sonatas all of which are exclusively scored for the violin. Others left it to the performer to select the instrument on which to play the treble part, such as Bartolomeo de Selma y Salaverde and Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger.
Apart from sonatas, the programme includes several pieces based on the diminution technique. Aurelio Virgiliano included instructions on this technique in his Il Dolcimelo, and Francesco Rognoni Taeggio did the same in his Modo di passeggiar. Their instructions were illustrated by musical examples, and in such pieces the choice of instrument is usually up to the performer. A popular composition technique was also the echo; that is included in Montalbano's Sinfonia IV.
The disc by Enrico Onofri and the Imaginarium Ensemble is a sequel to their disc "La Voce nel Violino", which - like the present one - included a sonata by Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli, a composer whose oeuvre is in a way a link between the early and the late 17th century. That also goes for Alessandro Stradella, whose sonata included here is notable for including an obbligato part for a string bass. Onofri is a brilliant violinist, who knows his way in this repertoire. I welcomed the previous disc, and am happy to do the same with this sequel. It is a fascinating journey through the world of 17th-century music for violin.
Whereas music for a solo instrument and basso continuo was a clear breach with the past, the programme of music for two and more instruments which the ensemble Clematis recorded, brings together past and present. The main feature of music of the 16th century, written in the stile antico, is that the instruments are treated on equal footing. That is the case, for instance, in the Canzona II a 6 by Giovanni Gabrieli. This kind of music was intended for liturgical use in the first place, and could be played on a variety of instruments.
Composers of the early 17th century sometimes looked back to the past, such as Biagio Marini in his Canzon I per quattro violini. The use of the word canzona already points to the stile antico. It is notable that the first section omits a separate basso continuo part. His Capriccio per sonare con tre corde a modo di lira is also reminiscent of past times: Jérôme Lejeune, in his liner-notes, writes: "Marini here clearly wanted to recall the sound and manner of playing the lira da braccio, the instrument that was the descendant of the bowed vielles with drone strings, although here he goes further and makes use of three-note chords. He suggests that the position of the strings on the bridge should be adapted so as to make this possible with the words Bisogna che le due grosse corde sino vicine: the two thicker strings should be close to each other." On this disc this piece is followed almost attacca by two other pieces which are dominated by counterpoint: the Sinfonia XIX a tre violini by Marco Uccellini, and the Canzona a 3 by Cavalli. The latter piece was intended for liturgical use, and the fact that no wind instrument is required, is remarkable, considering the tradition of playing cornetts and sackbuts in St Mark's in Venice.
Part of its tradition was also the use of the technique of cori spezzati: the division of an ensemble of voices and/or instruments into two or more choirs. Although this was rooted in the antiphonal practice in use in the Christian church since early times, it also had a theatrical aspect, which fitted perfectly in the Italian craving for drama, which ultimately resulted in the birth of opera. The use of two opposing groups was a way to create a dialogue, and this was also used in, for instance, madrigals. This compositional technique was translated into instrumental music by, for instance, Salomone Rossi, in his Sonata a quattro violini e doi chitarroni. In Dario Castello's Sonata XVII in Ecco per due violini, the ensemble is not formally split into two, but in reality, the two upper voices have their own echo, and the sonata ends with a full-blooded dialogue between the two groups.
The echo was another popular device, and one could even see this as a specific application of the cori spezzati technique, as here one or two instruments are in dialogue with their echo. In opera it was a way to create a dialogue between a character and his inner self or another character, which was mostly invisible. The latter aspect was also adopted in instrumental music, such as in Biagio Marini's Sonata in Ecco con tre violini, in which the composer specifically orders the players of the two echo violins to be invisible.
The most modern feature of the programme comes to the fore in the technique of double stopping. Whereas composers often left the choice of instrument(s) to the performers, even in those pieces intended for violins (which often have the addition "or other instruments"), in some pieces the use of double stopping excluded the use of, for instance, cornetts. That is the case in Marini's Capriccio, mentioned above, but also in his Sonata IV per sonar con due corde, in which the violin is required to play two parts, as well as in another piece mentioned before, his Sonata in Ecco.
Clematis is a fine ensemble which has recorded a fascinating programme, which bears witness to the versatility and the sense of adventure of composers of the early 17th century. They deliver stylish performances, in which those qualities come off rather well. My only slight reservation is that the range of dynamics could be wider. One of the features of the time was the use of the messa di voce in vocal music. I would have liked a kind of translation of this into the performance of instrumental music.
The third disc has a somewhat wider scope, as it includes a cello concerto by Vivaldi. That is relevant in that one of the threads of the programme is the ideal of the expression of human emotions, generally known as affetti. That was still the ideal in Vivaldi's time, but it was obviously achieved with different means than in the first half of the 17th century. One difference is the clear separation of movements, which took shape in the last decades of the 17th century. Before, sonatas, sinfonias and canzonas - the names are mostly interchangeable - comprised only one movement, consisting of several sections of contrasting character, tempo and metre, following each other attacca. This was a hallmark of what was known as the stylus phantasticus. The sonatas by Castello and Buonamente are good examples.
In such pieces the two violins sometimes move in the same direction, sometimes they get involved in dialogue or imitate each other. Often sonatas for two or more instruments include solo episodes for one or all the instruments. That is the case, for instance, in Castello's Sonata IV. It is notable that in his Sonata X, the string bass is given a solo episode as well. The same is the case in Marini's Sonata a 3 'La Foscarina'.
The latter is one of the pieces with a title. It is mostly not clear what is meant by such a title. The same goes for the sonatas by Pandolfi Mealli, one of which is performed by Enrico Onofri, and for Giovanni Legrenzi's La Benaglia. However, we also find two pieces with the word sopra in their titles. Here we have to do with sonatas which are rooted in the diminution practice. The bergamasca (Uccellini) was a popular tune, usually associated with the recurring harmonic scheme I-IV-V-I, and frequently used for variations, often of increasing virtuosity. La Monica (Marini) refers to a popular 16th-century song about a girl who resists being sent to a convent. It was known under different titles in other parts of Europe, and was used numerous times for variations, either explicitly or implicitly.
The element of contrast which is so important in this programme, is perfectly worked out by the members of the Ensemble Colorito, who live up to the name of their ensemble by delivering colourful performances. The programme is different from that of the ensemble Clematis, and is a nice complement to that recording. In the case of Clematis's performances, I expressed the wish of a stronger dynamic shading. That is one of the differences between the two ensembles: the Ensemble Colorito prefers a wider dynamic range than Clematis, and as a result their performances are more compelling.
That said, if you are interested in Italian instrumental music of the 17th century, you should not miss either of them. The music never fails to surprise and to captivate.
Johan van Veen (© 2020)
Relevant links:
Clematis
Ensemble Colorito