Europa Galante J a M E S Fabio Biondi, Solo Violin & Direction
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
p h o t o © Europa Galante J a m e s Fabio Biondi, solo violin & direction R a j o t t e Fabio Ravasi, Elin Gabrielsson, Fabrizio Cipriani, violins 1 Andrea Rognoni, Silvia Falavigna, Rossella Borsoni, violins 2 Stefano Marcocchi, viola Alessandro Andriani, cello Patxi Montero, violone Giangiacomo Pinardi, theorbo Paola Poncet, harpsichord & organ MN Recorded at Villa San Fermo, Lonigo (Italy), on 20-22 May 2019 Engineered and produced by Fabio Framba Executive producer: Carlos Céster Design: Mónica Parra Editorial direction: Carlos Céster Translations: Mark Wiggins (ENG), Susanne Lowien (DEU) © 2020 note 1 music gmbh This is a special Europa Galante 30th-anniversary recording. Glossa would like to warmly thank Fabio Biondi and his ensemble for having shared with us the recent 8 years of this extraordinary musical journey. CC VIVALDI – CONCERTI PER LA PIETÀ VIVALDI – CONCERTI PER LA PIETÀ Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Concerti per La Pietà Concerto per due violini in D major, RV 513 Concerto per viola d’amore, liuto ed archi in D minor, RV 540 01 Allegro molto 6:00 10 Allegro 5:39 02 Andante 3:27 11 Largo 3:33 03 Allegro 5:35 12 Allegro 3:23 Fabio Biondi, violin (Genaro Gagliano, Naples 1766. Kindly lent by the Fondazione Salvatore Cicero) Fabio Biondi, viola d’amore (Genaro Vinaccia, Naples 1758) Andrea Rognoni, violin (Anonymous, Italian school c.1750) Giangiacomo Pinardi, lute (Stefano Solari, Milan 1990, copy of an Italian original) Concerto per violino “per la Signora Chiara” in D major, RV 222 Concerto per archi ripieno in G minor, RV 152 04 Allegro 3:53 13 Allegro molto 2:02 05 Andante 4:16 14 Andante molto 2:06 06 Allegro 3:28 15 Allegro molto 1:57 Fabio Biondi, violin (Genaro Gagliano, Naples 1766. Kindly lent by the Fondazione Salvatore Cicero) [Edition of the Conservatorio di Venezia] Concerto per violino “per Anna Maria” in E flat major, RV 349 16 Allegro 4:47 Concerto per violino, organo e violoncello in C major, RV 554a 17 Grave 3:36 07 (no tempo indication) 4:49 18 Allegro ma poco 4:51 08 (no tempo indication) 3:52 Fabio Biondi, violin (Genaro Gagliano, Naples 1766. Kindly lent by the Fondazione Salvatore Cicero) 09 Allegro 3:40 [Edition of the Conservatorio di Venezia] Fabio Biondi, violin (Genaro Gagliano, Naples 1766. Kindly lent by the Fondazione Salvatore Cicero) Paola Poncet, organ (copy of a late 17th-century German model, prepared by Roberto Chinellato, 2010) Alessandro Andriani, cello (Ferdinando Gagliano, Naples 1781) 4 5 VIVALDI – CONCERTI PER LA PIETÀ VIVALDI – CONCERTI PER LA PIETÀ p p h h o o t t o o © © A A n n n n e e d d e e L L a a b b r r a a Europa Galante in the late 2010s Europa Galante in the early 1990s 6 7 VIVALDI – CONCERTI PER LA PIETÀ VIVALDI – CONCERTI PER LA PIETÀ almost half a century (save for an interruption of another”: La Bella at the Palazzo Pitti, The girl 400 concertos, so many versions, changes or six or seven years); it was there where Vivaldi with the feathered hat in the Hermitage who, in orderings and re-compositions, all caught in a composed hundreds of works – including those the Uffizi, becomes the Venus of Urbino , the foun - perpetual motion and which, in their giddiness, Concerti per La Pietà of this album – for his pupils: Pierina del violino , dation of whose amber and umber hair is in tune celebrate an unusual zest for life. Or – seeing as Self-portrait of the composer inventing Cattarina del corneto , Bettina della viola , (before its time, naturally) with the spirit of Paul we are in Venice – beneath so many extrava - and transforming Margherita del arpa doppia , Lucieta della trom - Verlaine as much as it is with that of Antonio gantly sensuous masks, princely or popular, in a ba ... and, of course, Chiaretta and Anna Maria, the Vivaldi. They bear resemblances to that same – joyous fusion of folklore and splendour: the com - by Pierre Élie Mamou greatest violin virtuosos that musical yet other – woman painted tirelessly by poser can be heard singing, reciting or declaim - cognoscenti such as the “magistrat libertin”, Caravaggio; she was his lover, Fillide Melandroni, ing at the top of his voice, he is seen capering “Nothing is original. Everything is in motion.” Charles de Brosses and Count Pyotr Tolstoy (an haughty or thoughtful from one appearance to across the fields, hurtling over the ice, he is per - (Mathias Énard, Boussole ) ancestor of the writer) had heard play. The con - another: as an overcome Mary Magdalen in Death ceived as being amorous or blustering, as a certs given by these musicians – a body number - of the Virgin , as the sleeping Virgin Mary in Rest wounded animal fleeing from the hunters or as a ing over sixty with the choral forces added in – on the Flight into Egypt , playing herself ( Portrait toper snoring in his sleep, he is imagined as There is nothing original. No surname either, for were hugely popular, attracting audiences drawn of a Courtesan ) or as Judith beheading Holofernes. Pierrot or Harlequin, a wanderer lost in blue and that matter. Only the first names for those girls from all walks of life in order to hear them. That And then there was Rembrandt – before Alfred pink dreams, or as a trapeze artist taking a thou - left, at birth, in front of the Venetian ospedali , is, to hear them without actually being able to Hitchcock came along and turned the idea into a sand and one vertiginous turns among the shim - poor unfortunates, orphans or offspring resulting see them (owing to religious considerations and wisecrack – stepping into a substantial number of mering, glistening or blazing lights of the lagoon. from illegitimate unions or prostitution. Such restrictions). Thus, no visual memories either for his works, paintings, etchings, drawings: as girls were able to acquire an excellent education these anonymous performers who formed one of painter but also as model with darkened eyes, MN at these hospices – which had been in existence the best orchestras in Europe. with tousled hair, with a haunted look, with friz - in Venice since the fourteenth century. Music They bear resemblances, across the cen - zled hair, as an apostle or dressed in oriental And it was with the music of Antonio Vivaldi that played an important part and teaching was car - turies, to that same – unknown – woman, paint - garb, a poodle in front of him... Fabio Biondi and his Europa Galante made their ried out by leading composers: Galuppi at the ed by Titian, whose sweet and sonorous name As a painter himself true to his model, recording debut, now remarkably thirty summers Ospedale dei Mendicanti, whilst at Santa Maria varies depending on the museum in which she lies Vivaldi not only “composed the same form so ago. An extraordinary journey which began with della Pietà it was Gasparini and Vivaldi who suc - exiled: Flora in Florence, Violante in Vienna, many times over” (in words ascribed to a stunning set of The Four Seasons , the first – cessively occupied the posts of maestro di violi - Salome in Rome and Madrid... or to that other Stravinsky), but drew a self-portrait on the spot, and eagerly-awaited – historically-informed no , del coro and de’ concerti over the span of woman “who is never quite the same, nor quite like a kaleidoscopic display bursting over some reading from an Italian ensemble. Three decades 8 | ENGLISH ENGLISH | 9 VIVALDI – CONCERTI PER LA PIETÀ VIVALDI – CONCERTI PER LA PIETÀ of music-making – of Italian composers in the ner of providing the simplest of instances – the indispensable condition in this repertoire) and before intertwining in the affecting chromati - main, but also Leclair, Handel, Telemann as well arrival of snow or of spring, night-time strolling, that one can play in a manner which is more cisms of the Andante . This delicate jousting is as that long-term Spanish resident, Boccherini; the closeness of the sea, the privacy of a ridotto stressed, with more spacious phrasing. “It is a revived in the third movement, reaching a climax this has been an exceptional achievement for an from where one hears the rain lashing against matter of employing a thorough-going approach in a cadenza as written out by Vivaldi for the two ensemble, and more especially one devoted to the window panes – with an incredible intensity to the language, but not with an intransigent atti - violins, a case which might well be unique in all exploring Baroque music. Thirty years during which reflects the pleasure experienced by tude. That would be synonymous with ignorance” his output. which time Biondi and Europa Galante have Vivaldi when he was composing his sound poems. says Fabio Biondi (with reason). By adopting For this Vivaldian set, Biondi has chosen the invited us to consider each concerto by Vivaldi as The interpretation of Fabio Biondi and of Europa breathing which is slower, less tense, the concerto, RV 554 in the version (RV 554a) where offered by them in a different manner, and it is Galante remains extroverted (those dashing alle - (“soothed”) performers have attained an inter - the cello replaces the oboe as a partner for the to him that they pay tribute in celebrating this gros ), “Latin or Italian”, but develops in a direc - pretative balance which allows them to reconcile organ and violin. This work, which also dates anniversary – theirs and that of listeners who tion which is more mature, more lyrical, and the two senses of the word concerto ; this itself from the composer’s later years, is one as con - have been following them regularly and loyally.