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"Music at the Farnese court in Renaissance Parma"

Ratas del viejo Mundo
Dir: Floris De Rycker

rec: July 3 - 5, 2022, Lier (B), Jezuïetenkerk
Passacaille - PAS 1138 (© 2023) (49'40")
Liner-notes: E/F/NL; lyrics - translations: E
Cover & track-list
Spotify

Fabrizio DENTICE (1539-1581): Amor che degg'io far; Volta de Spagna; Santino GARSI DA PARMA: Ballo del Serenissimo Duca di Parma. LORENZO DEL LIUTO (?-1608): Branle; Giorgio MAINERIO (c1535-1582): La Fiamenga; Claudio MERULO (1533-1604): Dunque fia ver dicea che mi convegna; Ingiustissimo Amor, perché sì raro; La Pazza; Sa questo altier ch'io l'amo e ch'io l'adoro; Gottfried PALMARTS (fl 1576-1578): Gloria; Josquino PERSOENS (c1540-c1590): Nell'aria in questi dì; Pietro PONTIO (1532-1596): Urbs beata Jerusalem; Cipriano DE RORE (1515/16-1565) / Girolamo DALLA CASA (?-1601) / Orazio BASSANI (c1550-1615): Io canterei d'amor sì novamente; Cipriano DE RORE / Girolamo DALLA CASA: Qual'è più grande o amore; Giaches DE WERT (1535-1596): Amor io fallo veggio il mio fallire; Il dolce sonno mi promise pace

Michaela Riener, soprano; Soetkin Baptist, mezzo-soprano; Anne Rindahl Karlsen, contralto; Tomàs Maxé, bass; Anna Lachegyi, Lies Wyers, viola da gamba; Floris De Rycker, lute, guitar

The latest disc of the ensemble Ratas del viejo Mundo is devoted to music life at the court in Parma during the second half of the 16th century. The booklet offers a long essay with much information about what was going on at the court of the Farnese dynasty. It was thanks to the marriage of Ottavio Farnese and Margaret, an illegitimate daughter of Charles V, that Flemish composers played a major role at the Farnese court in Parma. Although the marriage was bad, the couple shared a love for music, and Margaret had her own court, which included a chapel of mostly Flemish musicians. The status of the Farnese court raised also thanks to the title of Duke that the pope granted to Ottavio's father; at the latter's death, Ottavio inherited the title.

On the programme of this disc we find the names of several composers who for some time played a role at the court in Parma, and the genres that were important at the time: sacred music, madrigals and instrumental music. Cipriano de Rore spent most of the 1540s and 1550s at the Este court in Ferrara. In 1559 he left Ferrara and became the first maestro di capella in Parma in 1560. It seems that he hoped that this would improve his chances to become maestro di capella at St Mark's in Venice, but this did not happen. He died in 1565 in Parma. Rore has become best-known for his madrigals. He strongly contributed to the development of the genre, especially with regard to the connection between text and music. In that respect he was considered a trailblazer for the style that would conquer Italy after 1600. One of the representatives of that style, Claudio Monteverdi, saw him as a model.

Another influential madrigal composer was Giaches de Wert, also of Flemish birth. He never worked at Parma (he was in the service of the court in Mantua), but had contacts to the Farnese court. The dedication of his second book of five-part madrigals of 1561 to the Duke of Parma attests to that, and justifies the inclusion of two of his madrigals. David J. Burn, in his liner-notes, states that Claudio Merulo may have been a Parma native; this may be based on recent research, as New Grove mentions Correggio as his birthplace. However, he seems to have been connected to Parma, as he died there. He is best-known for his keyboard music, but he also composed madrigals: four books of his madrigals were published between 1566 and 1604, the first of which he dedicated to Duke Ottavio. One of the lesser-known composers in the programme is Fabrizio Dentice; he was a lutenist, but also wrote vocal music, sacred as well as secular. From 1569 until his death in 1581 he was in the service of the Farnese court. Little is known about Josquino Persoens. He first was in the service of Margaret of Austria in Brussels, and entered the service of the Duke of Parma in 1563. He dedicated his book of madrigals, which he described as "the first fruits of a plant which has grown with the nourishment of the sweet dew of the immortal Cipriano Rore", to the Duke of Parma.

As one may expect, sacred music also was an important part of music life at the court. The two composers who represent this genre are largely unknown. Gottfried Palmarts has no entry in New Grove; his presence as a singer at the court in Parma is documented for 1573. Later he worked for several years in Munich, where Orlandus Lassus was Kapellmeister. After his return to Parma in 1578 he was appointed maestro di capella. Whereas Palmarts was of Flemish birth, Pietro Pontio was a native of Parma. Apparently he was talented as Rore - probably his teacher - recommended him for the post of maestro di capella at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. He has become mainly known for his theoretical writings. His extant oeuvre comprises masses, hymns, psalms and motets.

The third category represented in the programme is instrumental music. A large part of what instrumental ensembles played in the Renaissance consisted of vocal music. Most of the purely instrumental music was intended for a keyboard or plucked instrument. Instrumental pieces were mostly dances, and in this programme we get several specimens. In addition the ensemble plays several diminutions on then popular vocal pieces. That goes for Rore's madrigals Io canterei d'amor si novamente, which was the subject of diminutions by Girolamo Dalla Casa and Orazio Bassani, and Qual’è più grande o amore, which is performed in its original form and with dimutions by Dalla Casa, first instrumentally and then vocally.

That brings us to the performances. I have reviewed several of this ensemble's recordings in recent years, and although I admire the quality of its singers and players, I often feel a little unease. That has to do with the choices with regard to performance practice, which they never explain. There is no information about the sources from which the music is taken, and the line-up of individual pieces is never specified. And then there is the fact that their discs are always rather short. It all looks a little pretentious. It reminds me of the unbearable pretentions of Teodor Currentzis, who apparently thinks his performances are so good that people should pay full price for a disc with just one Beethoven symphony.

Only a few vocal items here are performed in a way that was most common at the time. It is true that madrigals could be performed with one voice and instruments, but here too many are performed this way. It is also annoying that in the case of Rore's Io canterei there is no indication where the original stops and the diminutions start, and which of the two we are hearing. It starts with a solo voice, and here Anne Rindahl Karlsen sings almost like a folk singer. I can't believe that was the way madrigals were sung at the time. The oddest performance is undoubtedly Pontio's Urbs beata Jerusalem, which is sung by Tomàs Maxé with two viole da gamba and lute. I highly doubt that sacred music was performed in such a line-up at the court in Parma.

As I indicated, there is nothing to complain about the quality of singing and playing as such. It is just that I find it hard to swallow some aspects of this recording. I would have preferred more music and less extravagancies in the way it is performed. I doubt that I will return to this disc; others may enjoy it more than I did.

Johan van Veen (© 2024)

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