Rachel Podger
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CHANNEL CLASSICS CCS SA 36014 ldi marin ba i p o an sc d e o r l f f i a u m c i p e r l a c c e l a b a r o c c a l d i r e a r l y i t a l i a n n a i n g o masterpieces a e b l r i a e n l a i t c n a o s f t e o l l Rachel Podger violin Marcin Świątkiewicz harpsichord & organ Daniele Caminiti theorbo achel Podger is one of the most Comberti Chair for Baroque Violin, and Rcreative talents to emerge in the field of the Royal Welsh College of Music and period performance. Over the last two Drama, where she holds the Jane Hodge decades she has established herself as a Foundation International Chair in Baroque leading inter preter of the music of the Violin, and teaches at insti tutions through Baroque and Classical periods. She was out the world. educated in Germany and in England at the Future engagements include colla bo Guild hall School of Music and Drama, rations with fortepianist Kristian Bezuiden where she studied with David Takeno and hout and director Masaaki Suzuki, tours Micaela Comberti. with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra After beginnings with The Palladian and the English Concert, plus recitals at the Ensemble and Florilegium, she was leader Wigmore Hall and through out the uk and of The English Concert from 1997 to 2002 Europe. and in 2004 began a guest directorship Rachel Podger is managed worldwide with The Orchestra of the Age of by Percius. www.percius.co.uk Enlighten ment. As a guest director and soloist she has collaborated with numerous arcin Świątkiewicz is one of the fore orchestras including The European Union Mmost Polish harpsichord players of a Baroque Orchestra, Holland Baroque young generation, appreciated equally in Society and the Handel and Haydn Society solo and chamber music repertoire and (usa). Rachel has performed in chamber known for his inventive basso continuo recitals and recorded with Trevor Pinnock realisations. and Gary Cooper. He is a versatile musician whose interest Her latest solo recording, entitled apart from historical keyboard instruments Guardian Angel, won a bbc Music is directed towards improvisation and Magazine Award in the Instrumental composition. Marcin specializes in per Category in 2014. She is also Artistic forming on harpsichord, clavichord, his Director of her own festival: the Brecon torical piano and organ. Rachel Podger (photo Jonas Sacks) Baroque Festival. Rachel is an honorary As soloist and chamber musician member of both the Royal Academy of Marcin appears in concert halls in Europe, Music, where she holds the Micaela both Americas and Asia collaborating with [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque, Divino three years with Oscar Ghiglia at the Music Sospiro (Enrico Onofri), Capella Craco Academy in Basel (Switzerland), where he viensis, Arte dei Suonatori, {oh!} Orkiestra obtained a Concert Diploma with the Historyczna and the Scroll Ensemble. honor ‘excellent’. He participated in major festivals such as As a soloist he has won many prizes in Göttingen Handel Festspiele, Festival de various national and international com Radio France Montpelier, Wratislavia petitions. He has dedicated himself to the Cantans, bbc Baroque Spring, Kings Place’s study of early music played on historical Bach Unwrapped series. instruments such as the renaissance lute, He was the finalist of the 1st Inter archlute, theorbo, baroque and romantic national Volkonsky Harpsichord Compe guitar. He studied with Peter Croton at the tition in Moscow (2010) and 4th Inter Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where he also national Telemann Competition in Magde worked for several years as an accompanist. burg (2007 with Haagsche Hofmuzieck). His busy schedule includes per for He was awarded various prizes and ming as a soloist as well as a chamber scholar ships inluding: Polish Ministry of musician in highprofile ensembles and Culture Scholarship ‘Młoda Polska’, Dutch orchestras, often playing with renowned Huygens Scholarship to study in Royal artists, such as Andrea Marcon, Ottavio Conservatoire in The Hague as well as Dantone, Rubén Dubrovsky, Michael Silesian Voivodeship prize. Hofstetter, Christian Curnyn, Attilio Marcin graduated from the Royal Cremonesi, Enrico Onofri, Chiara Con servatoire in the Hague, The Nether Banchini, Julia Schröder, Rachel Podger, lands and obtained his PhD on the harpsi Marc Hantaï, Maurice Steger, Sergio chord concertos of J.G. Müthel from the Azzolini, Antonio Politano, Alfredo Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Bernardini, Jesper Christensen, Jörg Kato wice, Poland, where he currently Andreas Bötticher, PierreAndré Taillard, teaches. Cecilia Bartoli, Bernarda Fink, Veronica Cangemi, Maria Cristina Kiehr and Marcin Świątkiewicz (photo Greg Klukowski) aniele Caminiti was born in Sicily. He Andreas Scholl. Dgraduated in classical guitar at the He performs regularly, both as a soloist ‘Conservatorio’ in Pescara and studied for and continuo player, with many baroque [ 4 ] [ 5 ] ensembles and orchestras, such as ‘Venice Since 2011 he has been teaching lute Baroque Orchestra’, ‘Giardino Armonico’, (and other plucked string instruments), ‘Brixia Musicalis’, ‘Bach Consort Wien’, chamber music and basso continuo at the ‘Kammerorchester Basel’, ‘La Cetra’, ‘Zür summer courses of ‘Austrian Baroque cher Barockorchester’, ‘Holland Baroque Academy’, Gmunden (Salzburg). Society’, ‘Hessicher Rundfunk Orchester’ He also studies conducting under the and ‘ndr Orchester’. guidance of the argentinian conductor Daniele has assisted Serio Azzolini with Mario De Rose, who is currently based in (and player continuo for) several master Vienna. classes (‘Le Sonate di Jan Dismas Zelenka’ He is currently working with the New – Associazione Musicale ‘Artemista’, York composer Raphael Fusco on a special Firenze). programme for his lute duo. Daniele Caminiti [ 6 ] [ 7 ] P erla B arocca aesthetic. A wide range of affetti is ionally vocal: expansive melodic lines are generated through the subtle and gradual coloured with accenti and embellished with E arly I talian M asterpieces transformation of motives. Frescobaldi’s madrigalistic tirades of semiquavers. The attention to rhythm and tempi convey work encapsulates the ambivalent dicho a flexibility towards performance and tomy between vocal and instrumental music y the midseventeenth century, musical The preface to a posthumous publi ca characterisation. so prevalent and characteristic of the time. Bcomposition had reached a point where tion Sonate a 1. 2. 3. per il violino, o The surviving compositions of Marco So little is known about Giovanni invention had converged with technical cornetto, fagotto, chitarone, violoncino o Uccellini (1603-1680) trace the develop Antonio Pandolfi Mealli (1630-1670); mastery. Composers embraced a bass line simile altro istromento (Venice, 1641) has ment of violin writing in the first half of the indeed, Andrew Manze jokingly wonders lively with linearity, often entering into been used to construct a biography with seventeenth century. His collections, almost whether the composer was “invented by a dialogue with the upper voices. Exploratory only a few landmarks: Fontana was born in wholly devoted to sonatas, greatly expand mischievous musicologist one wet Wednes harmonic schemes were encompassed Brescia, employed in his home town, Rome violinistic technique, featuring virtuosic day”. Makebelief or not, Mealli’s influence within larger unified tonalities. Through and Padua, and died during the plague passages and notably high writing. Such is indisputable. The Sonata Sesta (Op 4, rhetorical structures, such as motive, which affected northern Italy (also claiming technical achievements are married to an 1690) “La Vinciolina” illustrates the latest imitation and sequence, composers instilled Giovanni Paolo Cima featured below). expanded expressive range: the Sonata fashions in violin technique. Embedded logic into their musical arguments. These Due to the posthumous nature of the overo Toccata quinta a violino solo “detta within the stylus phantasticus, Mealli characteristics, though rooted in vocal sonatas, the editorial designation of “il la Laura rilucente” ventures into remote leads the listener through an unpredictable practice, were being cultivated for the first violono” is not certain; nevertheless, the keys and intense chromaticism. journey of invention and contrast. time in musical history for instrumentalists. Sonata Seconda is particularly suited to the The legacy of Dario Castello (1590- Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704) entered In other words, the Baroque was born. violin, with the oscillation between long 1658) comprises 29 works. In the Sonata the Collegio di Sant’Orsola in 1636, and The featured composers showcase melodic phrases and vigorous rhythmic Seconda, Castello’s development of an epi remained in the convent for the rest of her sublime examples of the early Italian passages enlivened by string crossings. sodic structure, juxtaposing sections of life. A prolific composer, leaving behind Baroque. Some composers dominate the The Italian composer and keyboard contrasting characters, is a stunning exam approximately 200 compositions, the 1693 repertory; others have left behind only a virtuoso Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) ple of the stile moderno. Castello swerves collection is of particular historical im handful of works. Here, they come together was described by a contemporary to have between the farthest reaching emotions in portance: they are thought to be the earliest to convey the diverse musical landscape at his entire intellect “in his fingertips”. It is the space of a barline, creating adventurous sonatas published by a woman. The Sonata such an excitingly rich and creative era. possible to glean his celebrated performing music for the performer and listener alike. Duodecima reflects Leonarda’s mostly Very little is known about Giovanni style through the printed 1615 collections. The vocalism of the music of Biago liturgical oeuvre: her harmonic writing Battista Fontana (d. 1631), and what is The Toccata Prima and Toccata per Marini (1594-1663) is clear in his Sonata is adventurous, and suggestive of the known about his life and music is confined Spinettina e Violino demonstrates his quatro per sonar con due corde.