ayros C o n t r a s t o A r m o n i c o m a r c o v i t a l e H a n d e l c a n t a t e 0 2 M i t ch e l l S a n d l e r
Spande ancor a mio dispetto Dalla guerra amorosa Nell’africane selve Cuopre tal volta il cielo 1
ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 1 27-05-15 08:40 C o n t r a s t o A r m o n i c o G e o r g F r i e d r i ch H a n d e l (1685-1759) c a n t a t e 0 2
Sonata in La minore op. 4 nr. 5 (Arcangelo Corelli) Spande ancor a mio dispetto hwv 165 Dalla guerra amorosa hwv 102a Sonata in La maggiore op. 4 nr. 3 (Arcangelo Corelli) Nell’africane selve hwv 136a Cuopre tal volta il cielo hwv 98
Mitchell Sandler bass-baritone
Contrasto Armonico Marco Vitale harpsichord & direction Stefan Plewniak, Enrique Gómez-Cabrero Fernández, Aliona Kalechyts-Piatrouskaya violins Pierre-Augustine Lay cello
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 2 27-05-15 08:40 G e o r g F r i e d r i ch Sonata Op. 4 nr. 5 in La minore Sonata Op. 4 nr. 3 in La maggiore H a n d e l (Arcangelo Corelli) (Arcangelo Corelli) (1685-1759) 1 Preludio 2.28 13 Preludio 4.50 2 Allemanda 1.42 14 Corrente 1.28 c a n t a t e 0 2 3 Corrente 1.20 15 Sarabanda 2.05 4 Gavotta 0.53 16 Tempo di Gavotta 1.56
Spande ancor a mio dispetto hwv 165 Nell’africane selve hwv 136a Sonata in La minore op. 4 nr. 5 (Arcangelo Corelli) 5 Aria: Spande ancor a mio dispetto 4.18 17 Recitativo: Nell’Africane selve 1.44 Spande ancor a mio dispetto hwv 165 6 Accompagnato: O! che da fiere pene 1.44 18 Aria: Langue trema 10.12 Dalla guerra amorosa hwv 102a 7 Aria: Da balza in balza 4.03 19 Recitativo: Nice là, fra confine 1.08 Sonata in La maggiore op. 4 nr. 3 (Arcangelo Corelli) 20 Aria: Chiedo amore, altro non bramo 3.14 Dalla guerra amorosa hwv 102a Nell’africane selve hwv 136a Cuopre tal volta il cielo hwv 98 Cuopre tal volta il cielo hwv 98 8 Recitativo: Dalla guerra amorosa 0.33 9 Aria: Non v’alletti un occhio nero 3.38 21 Accompagnato: Cuopre tal volta il cielo 1.17 Mitchell Sandler bass-baritone 10 Recitativo: Fuggite, si fuggite 0.44 22 Aria: Tuona, balena 3.25 11 Aria: La bellezza è com’un fiore 2.20 23 Recitativo: Così fiera procella 1.18 12 Recitativo: Fuggite, si fuggite, 24 Aria: Per pietà de’miei martiri 4.14 Contrasto Armonico a chi servo d’amor 1.04 Marco Vitale harpsichord & direction total timing 61.51 Stefan Plewniak, Enrique Gómez-Cabrero Fernández, Aliona Kalechyts-Piatrouskaya violins Pierre-Augustine Lay cello
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 4 27-05-15 08:40 handel cantate 02
he bass voice is rather modestly represented within the corpus of Handel’s solo T cantatas. Only four such works have come down to us from his years in Italy, but these are certainly compositions of great brilliance. The enormous vocal demands of two of the pieces are legendary. Handel joined all his genius for characterisation to an operatic grasp of the dramatic situation in each cantata. He did not hesitate to translate his poet’s extreme imagery into music which exploits all the shades of the bass voice. In so doing, these early works prefigure the later operatic bass roles of his London period. Barely twenty years old, he made the same demands of his bass singers in Rome and Naples as he later did for the powerful voices of Boschi and Montagnana. How wonderful it would be to be able to read firsthand information about the original performances in the selected Conversazioni and Accademie of Handel’s patrons. Alas, no unequivocal source exists. At least the researchers have been able to find circumstantial evidence pointing to the singer for whom Handel wrote his two most spectacular bass cantatas. ‘Nell’africane selve’ with Basso Continuo (bwv 136a) and the Cantata con violini ‘Cuopre tal volta il cielo’ (hwv 98) were evidently written in the summer of 1708 in Naples for Domenico Antonio Manna. during his two-month stay in Naples, Handel produced his serenata ‘Aci, Galatea, e Polifemo’, a splendid production of which Marco Vitale has made an exemplary recording. It features an incredibly difficult bass role: Polifemo. Quite early on researchers noticed the similarity between this role and the enormous range of the solo bass part in the two cantatas mentioned above – a similarity also borne out by the three manuscripts: all are on the same paper. Bit by bit the Handel scholars were able to shed light on the subject, and identify a singer who must have been the bass soloist at the first performance. The occasion would have been the elaborate wedding festivities for Duke Alvito, in his palace in Chiaia in mid July, 1708. There was also a repeat performance in December, 1711, at yet another princely wedding celebration in Piedimonte. It is known that the bass Domenico Antonio Manna was engaged for both festivities, even though it cannot be proved that Manna performed the role of Polifemo. On the other hand, he is known to have performed in other music at these events. In this way the Italian musicologist Carlo Vitali has identified Manna as the most probable first performer of the two cantatas composed in Naples.
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 5 27-05-15 08:40 these two cantatas have always represented such an intimidating testimony to the abilities of their first performer that few bass singers have wished to attempt them. This is due to their huge range and to Handel’s clever ‘dramatisation’ of the various vocal colours through shrill contrasts, crazy leaps, and bizarre changes of register. Both cantatas combine one aria for high baritone with one for a voice of nearly impossible range. For example, the first aria of ‘Nell’africane selve’ (hwv 136a) requires an absurd vocal compass: from low C# to tenor top A. The opening recitative paints a picture of the wilds of Africa with sudden register shifts and diminished intervals. This corresponds to the textual ‘soundscape’ of the Italian. The ‘ululati’ (cries) of wild animals are mimicked by descending diminished twelfths. The ‘sibili’ (hissing) of snakes become a hissing run of 16th notes. The singer becomes a painter of nature, as it were. Frightened birds cry above the imposing figure of the lion, ruler of the jungle. Yet his days as king are numbered. In the first aria we see how he desperately throws himself against the nets in which he is trapped. Handel vividly describes this in descending triads in f# minor. This idea came to him again more than a decade later, in his English oratorio ‘Esther’, as a way of illustrating the fall of the traitor Haman. And yet he smoothed out the harmonies and vocal lines of ‘How art thou fall’n’, so that the original Neapolitan version comes across as stronger than the later parody. in the cantata’s second recitative, the singer reveals that all the scary natural imagery – the lion, the African jungle – is nothing more or less than pure rhetoric. We’ve been listening all along to a shepherd, who is expressing to his beloved what Love has done to him: made him into a weak, trapped lion. In the final aria he sings in the seductive baritone register: ‘I beg for love, more than this I do not desire!’. The vastly different ranges have just the dramatic effect that Handel intended; here we see the trapped lion, who tries to tear the net in which he is imprisoned - there the young shepherd, who sings persuasively to his beloved. ‘Cuopre talvolta il cielo’ (hwv 98) is built on the same model: the radical nature imagery at the opening of the cantata serves solely as a metaphor for the suffering of a young lover. Handel uses two violin lines in the urgent introductory recitative to paint a storm on the Neapolitan coast, complete with whistling winds, foaming seas, lightning and thunder. Out of the raging foam rises the image of the ‘Dio tridentato’: Neptune with his trident. He threatens not only those at sea, but devastates Juno’s domain on land as well. In the midst of this stormy violin music, the bass leaps to his low D, and foreshadows the register jumps of the first aria, ‘Tuona, balena, sibilla il vento’. In the ‘storm’ tonality of D major, Handel
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 6 27-05-15 08:40 combines wild triplets in the basso continuo, notated with a time signature of 6/8, with terse, abrupt chords in the violins, notating this in 2/4. The raging sea brings the singer to the very limits of his powers, if he is to succeed in the killing triplet coloratura and giant leaps. The second recitative explains the poetic simile: the shepherd reveals that lightning and thunder are the merciless glance and proud words of his beloved. The second aria is another surprising shift in key and mood. Both violin parts launch into an nearly endless figure of reproach in g minor, while the singer protests in expressive leaps of sixths and sevenths. ‘Per pietà de’ miei martiri’: out of pity for the sufferings of the hapless shepherd, the lovely shepherdess will at last hear his plea. it is unknown whether these two Neapolitan bass cantatas were also performed in Rome. Handel took the original manuscripts with him when he moved to Rome in August, 1708, to resume his work in the service of the Marchese Ruspoli. It seems he had already written another ‘Cantata per voce sola di Basso con Violini’ there just before his journey to Naples: ‘Spande ancor a mio dispetto’ (HWV 165). Most Handel scholars date the autograph of the this cantata as coming from the period between autumn 1707 and spring 1708. It was possibly written for the bass Cristofano Cinotti, for whom Handel wrote the role of Lucifer in his Easter oratorio ‘La Resurrezione’. This part, written in the spring of 1708, suited the abilities of his bass singer perfectly. The character of ‘Spande ancor a mio dispetto’ is not, however, that of the raging prince of the underworld. The nature imagery here is more that of Arcadia. The obligatory ‘pines of Rome’ are present, bowing not under Neptune’s sea-storm, but rather from the lightning bolts Jupiter hurls from atop the Capitol, raining down upon all of Rome in the roar of a deafening storm. In the first aria we see the dark storm clouds gathering, portrayed by descending fourths in the violins, in close formation which aurally creates a ‘cloud of sound’. The singer picks up this theme and spins it out expressively. In the recitativo accompagnato at the heart of the cantata, the storm clouds burst. And the final aria explains the moral of the story: the life of the lover is always uncertain, while the river of love hurls him from rock to rock. Both violin parts accompany this unisono with luminous sixteenths in triple time, providing a gorgeous image of water cascading down a rock face, amplifying the pictorial imagery of the singer’s ‘Da balza in balza’. even during Handel’s lifetime, ‘Dalla guerra amorosa’ (hwv 102a) was one of his most popular cantatas. In a soprano version in D (the original for bass voice is in Bb major), the Italian arranger did away with only one of the parallel octaves, which were a product of the
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 7 27-05-15 08:40 transposition. In Hannover Handel later listed the bass version of the work in a collection of several of his Roman cantatas. As newly appointed master of music to the elector of Hannover, later King George I of England, Handel wanted to show off the skills he had honed in Rome. It is clear in any case that he had a capable bass singer at his disposal, who would have performed the role of Apollo in the recently completed cantata ‘Apollo e Dafne’. It is unknown who sang ‘Dalla guerra amorosa’ in Rome, and the date of the performance is also unknown. The first copyist’s records are from 1709, when Handel had already leftR ome, but it could well be that the work was composed in the spring for the above-mentioned Cristofano Cinotti. According to Ellen Harris, the version for bass seems to have been the original one. in substance, this is the tried and true metaphor of the ‘war of love’, which had already inspired Claudio Monteverdi to write some of his most famous madrigals. In Handel’s version, however, the lover beats a tactical retreat. It is better to forswear the war of love than to engage and be defeated, because in the dark eyes of every beloved lurks the god of love, with his deadly arrows. the first aria portrays the malign cunning of the occhio“ nero” in a disarming melody, which Handel brought with him to Italy. He borrowed the music from a chorus ‘Amor, Amor deine Tücke’ from his Hamburg opera ‘Die verwandelte Daphne’. In both cases the melody warns of Cupid’s tricks. After this cheerful opening movement in Bb major, the second aria, in minor key, brings us into more melancholic regions. The gloomy, chromatic melody portrays the fleeting nature of all that is beautiful. Neither Handel nor his unknown poet intended to send their Roman audience home with a melancholy musing on ‘all is vanity!’. The bass once again advises all to flee from the war of love, and adds, in a powerful, rhythmic arioso: ‘He who serves love, becomes his prisoner’. Both instrumental interludes on this cd point to a composer whose influence on the young Handel can hardly be overestimated – Arcangelo Corelli. As leader of the Roman orchestra, and as the mentor of such stars as Montanari, Castrucci and Rotondi, Corelli was an omnipresent figure in Handel’s cantata performances, even when he himself was not playing. He conducted both of Handel’s Roman oratorios from the concertmaster’s seat, perhaps the music for the festival of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in 1707, as well as one or several of the serenatas. The violin parts of both ‘Spande ancor’ and ‘Cuopre tal volta’ testify to the influence Corelli’s trio sonatas had on Handel. The final aria of ‘Spande ancor’
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 8 27-05-15 08:40 would have been unthinkable without the corrente of Corelli’s trio sonata opus 4 number 3. The gavotte from the same trio sonata begins with the same falling fourths as the opening movement of ‘Spande ancor’. This short Corelli movement reminds us of another similar setting by Handel: the ‘Messiah’ chorus ‘Let us break their bonds asunder’. The final aria of ‘Cuopre tal volta’ is actually a free inversion of the allemanda of the a minor sonata opus 4 number 5. It is certain that Corelli’s chamber sonatas were often played during Handel’s stay in Rome, and not only in the accademia of their dedicatee, Cardinal Ottoboni.
Karl Böhmer Translation: Mitchell Sandler
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 9 27-05-15 08:40 Spande ancor a mio dispetto
5 Spande ancor a mio dispetto A dense thick cloud and a dark mist nube densa oscura e bruna spreads to my dismay fiero nembo in faccia al sole. over the face of my Sun. E il mio cor che langue in petto And my heart which pines in my breast al rigor di sua fortuna at the harshness of its fortune più s’ affanna e più si duole. becomes more anxious and sad.
6 O! che da fiere pene Oh I carry a heart torn quasi da mostri orrendi by sharp pains porto il cor lacerato. as if by horrid monsters. Freme il mare agitato, The restless sea shudders, più non son l’aure amene, no longer are the breezes gentle, ma rabbioso ogni vento but a raging wind runs corre le vie del cielo, the paths of the sky, e con oltraggio and outrageously toglie la verde chioma tears off the green foliage al Pino, al Faggio. from the pine and the beech tree. Precipitoso il fiume, Headlong the river cade di balza in balza, Falls from crag to crag, e dove più s’inalza, and where it descends da torrenti accresciuto increased by torrents al campo i fiori to the field washes away e l’innocente o vil the meadow flowers toglie a Pastori. innocent and humble. Tuona l’Etra e balena The air thunders and fulmina Giove irato, enraged Jove blazes lightning, e tenebroso il cielo and darkened, the sky cinto d’ oscuro velo, girdled with a thick veil,
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 10 27-05-15 08:40 cuopre tutto d’ orrore covers a desperate lover un disperato. with total horror.
A dense thick cloud and a dark mist 7 spreads to my dismay Da balza in balza From rock to rock over the face of my Sun. se cade il fiume, the river hurls itself, And my heart which pines in my breast da pena in pena from pain to pain at the harshness of its fortune pur passa il cor. so goes the heart. becomes more anxious and sad. E mai s’inalza And ever it leaps sopre le piume on the wings di amor che frena of love to hold back Oh I carry a heart torn l’altrui dolor. its other sorrows. by sharp pains as if by horrid monsters. Dalla guerra amorosa The restless sea shudders, no longer are the breezes gentle, 8 but a raging wind runs Dalla guerra amorosa, From the war of love, the paths of the sky, Or che ragion mi chiama, Now that reason calls me, and outrageously O miei pensieri, O my thoughts, tears off the green foliage Fuggite pur, fuggite, Fly indeed, fly, from the pine and the beech tree. Vergognosa non è Flight is not inglorious Headlong the river In amor la fuga, In love, Falls from crag to crag, Che sol fuggendo un’alma For only by fleeing and where it descends Del crudo amor può riportar la palma. Is a soul able to win the palm [of victory] increased by torrents from cruel love. to the field washes away 9 the meadow flowers Non v’alletti un occhio nero, Do not be charmed by any dark eye[s] innocent and humble. Con sui sguardi lusinghiero Alluring with their glances The air thunders and Che da voi chieda pietà. That my beg pity from you. enraged Jove blazes lightning, Che per far le sue vendette, For in order to take revenge, and darkened, the sky E con arco e con saette, With both bow and arrow, girdled with a thick veil, Ivi amor nascoso sta. Love stands hidden there.
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 11 27-05-15 08:40 10 Fuggite, sì fuggite! Fly, yes, fly! Ahi! di quanto veleno, Ah! how much poison Amore asperge i suoi piaceri, Love sprinkles over his pleasures, Ah! quanto [som]ministra duol, e pianto, Ah! how much sadness and crying he gives to A chi lo segue e le sue leggi adora. The one who follows him and worships his laws Se un volto v’innamora, If a [beautiful] face makes you fall in love, Sappiate, O pensieri miei, Know, O my thoughts, Che ciò che piace That that which pleases In brev’ora svanisce, e poi dispiace. In a short while vanishes, and then brings sorrow.
11 La bellezza è com’un fiore, Beauty is like a flower, Sul matin vivace e bello, In the morning lively and lovely, Sul matin di primavera, In the morning of springtime, Che la sera langue e more, Which in the evening languishes and dies, Si scolora e non par quello. It fades and no longer seems what it was.
12 Fuggite, sì fuggite! Fly, yes fly! A chi servo d’amor vive in catena, To one who, a servant of love, lives in chains, È dubbioso il gioir, certa la pena. Joy is doubtful, pain certain.
Nell’africane selve
17 Nell’africane selve, In the forests of Africa Ove rei spaventi, Where fearsome monsters, O cada o sorga il giorno, Whether at dawn or sunset, S’odono sempre intorno - Are heard all around - Ululati di belve, The howling of beasts, Sibili di serpenti The hissing of serpents
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 12 27-05-15 08:40 E d’augelli rapaci orride strida - And the mere screams of birds of prey - Fiero leon s’annida, The proud lion has his den, Ed audace e maestoso, And, bold and majestic, Non soggiace al timor fra l’altre fiere; He does not succumb to fear among the other animals; Stampa nei boschi, altiere, Proudly he prints L’orme del passo errante, His wandering footsteps in the forest, Ma se mai, fra le piante, But if ever through the branches Un raggio lo ferisce He is struck by a ray [of light] D’insidiosa e lucida facella, From an insidious bright torch, L’audacia del leon non è più quella. The lion’s audacity is not what it was.
18 Langue, trema, e prigioniero Pining, trembling and a prisoner Fra le reti allora inciampa, In the nets, he stumbles now, Quando stampa l’orme sicure. When he would confidently tread. E del suo valor primiera And of his former strength Perde tutta la costanza, He loses all the firmness, E con misera sembianza And with sad mien Piange pur le sue sventure. He weeps for his fate.
19 Nice, là fra confine di valli incolte There, Nice, among the confines of valleys wild E boscarecci orrori, And awe-inspiring forests, Scevro’ da quei timori Free from those fears Di perder mai la libertà gradita, Of ever losing my desired liberty, E superbo e discolto I, proud and unfettered, Trassi, come leon, l’ore di vita. Passed, like the lion, my days. Ma quando de’ tuoi lumi But when your [eyes’] Mi ferì poi la geminata face, Twin shafts [of light] struck me, Piagato e senza pace, Wounded and no longer at peace, Tuo prigionieri me fe l’arciero Dio! The archer-god made me your prisoner!
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 13 27-05-15 08:40 Dunque, bell’idol mio, Therefore, my beloved, Se fida l’alma mia te solo brama, Since my faithful spirit longs for you alone, Con esempio di fede ama chi t’ama With the example of faithfulness, love him who loves you. 20 Chiedo amore, Altro non bramo, Naught else beside, Io che t’amo I who love you E serbo fé. And keep faith. E pietà And pity L’anima mia Is all my soul Sol desia Would seek, Se vive in te. I ask for love, If [pity] lives in you.
Cuopre tal volta il cielo
21 Cuopre tal volto il cielo Sometimes the sky is covered nube oscura improvisa, by a sudden dark cloud, e tenebroso velo and a shadowy veil spande nera tempesta draws a black storm in faccia al sole; across the face of the sun; turbato il rio si duole, the river is stirred in agitation e il tridentato Dio, and the trident God, voragini spumanti, with foaming chasms, apre fra l’onde opens up the waves ad assorbir le vele. to swallow the ships. Con impeto crudele With cruel impetus scuoton rapidi vanni the unfriendly winds aure nemiche, shake their rapid wings, e per le spiagge apriche and on the open shores cadono dissipati fall scattered
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 14 27-05-15 08:40 e fronde e fiori; both branches and flowers; feriscono gli orrori, these horrors wound, che ingombrano di Giuno that deface Juno’ s molli campi, soft meadows, insidiosi lampi treacherous lightning e repentino tuono and sudden thunder fa più temer make one more fearful con strepitoso suono. with their deafening noise.
22 Tuona, ballena, sibilla il vento, It thunders, the lightning strikes, the wind shrieks, e l’etra s’oscura s’agita il mar. and the air darkens as the sea whips itself up. E rio spavento, barbara pena And cruel fright and harsh pain cosi congiura per tormentar. thus conspire to torment one.
23 Cosi fiera procella da rio tormento Thus the proud tempest of cruel torment a spaventar va l’alme; goes forth to frighten our souls; ma, le perdute calme but the lost calms misero assai più gemo, e mi querela wretchedly I mourn the more, and I lament quando in tempesta miro when I see in the storm il volto del mio ben, ch’è pari al cielo; the face of my beloved, which is like the sky; Torbido a me d’intorno Darkly around me ombre spande d’ affanni, spread the shadows of grief, e sdegnosi, e tiranni, both scornful and tyrannical, or fugitivi, or tardi lampi now fleeting, now lingering sono i suoi sguardi, lightnings are her glances, e son fulmini orrendi i detti alteri, and horrid thunderbolts are her haughty words, onde fra ciechi orrori from which in blind terror, errano gia confusi i miei pensieri. already confused, my thoughts flee.
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 15 27-05-15 08:40 24 Per pieta de’ miei martiri, Out of pity for my sufferings, sia mio ben, l’arco del ciglio may, my love, the arch of your eye sempre l’iride di pace. be the rainbow of peace. Che se irato a me lo giri, For if you turn it on me in anger, senza scampo nel periglio, with no escape from the peril, la mia vitae più fugace. my life is the more fleeting
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 16 27-05-15 08:40 con t r asto a r monico & marco vitale ontrasto Armonico is an orchestra/ensemble which focuses on early music, espe Ccially music composed in the Italian style. It was founded in 2004 by Marta Semkiw and Marco Vitale (musical director), and established with the support of De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek. The birth of the orchestra was celebrated in Delft (nl) with two produc tions of Handel operas: Siroe, Re di Persia and Lotario. The aim of Contrasto Armonico is to go back to the roots of the hip ‘Historically Inspired Performance’, doing front-line research and advancing the boundaries of early music performance practice. An idea of hip as a constant ‘work in progress’, considering it as a philosophy instead of a consolidated tradition. The orchestra is constituted of professional musicians from all over the world who share thesame ideals and feelings for the Early Music performance practice, using copies of original instru ments, historical pitches and transpositions, keeping as a goal the intention to get as close as possible to the style and aesthetic of the work performed. Contrasto Armonico started a recording project of Handel vocal works in Italian language; the firstcd was released in 2008 by Brilliant Classics, with the serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo followed by the oratorio La Resurrezione in April 2009. Contrasto Armonico is currently involved in recording the complete Italian cantatas by G. F. Handel, an ambitious project which will include all the cantatas in Italian language composed by Handel with instru mental accompainment as well as with solo basso continuo (nearly 100 compositions): the first two volumes were released in the Handel year 2009 and now continued for the label ayros. Contrasto Armonico has performed in prestigious concert halls and festivals such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Utrecht Early Music Festival, Styriarte Graz, Songs of Our Roots (Jaroslaw, Poland).
Marco Vitale – Born in Palermo (Italy) in 1980. He studied piano, organ, harpsichord and composition at Palermo’s ‘V. Bellini’ Conservatory, where he took the piano diploma in 2001 and the organ diploma in 2002 with full marks and ‘Cum Laude’. He took part in many international master-classes where he developed his skills and taste for baroque music. His concert life began at age of 15, with performances as a soloist and chamber musician. In 2002 he moved to The Netherlands where he studied at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. 1 7
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 19 27-05-15 08:40 He took a Bachelor’s degree in organ with Jos van der Kooy and a Master in Early Music (harpsichord) with Ton Koopman. His musical activity brought him to play in the most prestigious venues and festivals in Europe, usa, Canada and Middle East as a soloist/continuo player or director of his Contrasto Armonico. Marco Vitale is the co-founder and musical director of ‘Contrasto Armonico’, baroque orchestra specialized in the performance of music in Italian style and baroque operas, using original instruments and historical performance practices. He is currently involved in the recordings of the Complete Italian Cantatas by Handel (formerly on Brilliant Classics, now on ayros), a thrilling project that will bring light on many undiscovered jewels of Handel which are neither edited nor recorded. He appeared in radio and tv broadcasts in Netherlands (avro), Germany, Austria (orf), Spain, Poland (Polskie Radio), Italy (rai), uk (bbc) and Syria (Syrian National Television), and he participated in recordings for Alia Vox (Rameau, L’Orchestre de Louis xv), and Naïve (Vivaldi’s Teuzzone). in 2012 he founded his own records label ‘ayros’, featuring recordings of Contrasto Armonico, with whom is continuing the project of Handel Complete Cantatas and starting new thrilling discographic projects. In addition to performing with Contrasto Armonico he also gives master-classes about baroque music throughout Europe and Middle East. From 2008 till 2011 he worked at the Higher Institute of Music of Damascus (Syria) for an early music development project. He participates as continuo player with ‘Le Concert des Nations’ of Jordi Savall and, as conductor, at Warsaw Chamber Opera.
mitchell sandler bass-baritone
Bass-baritone Mitchell Sandler studied music at the University of California at Berkeley, and did a secondary study in baroque music performance practice at the Royal Conservatory at the Hague. In between he toured for five years with the prize-winning men’s ensemble, Chanticleer. in 1992 he was asked to join a new ensemble of young soloists at the Netherlands Opera. He was one of the Flemish deputies in Verdi’s Don Carlo. He sang in Japan at the world premiere of Tea by Chinese composer Tan Dun, and in the reprises of the opera in the Netherlands and in Japan.
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 21 27-05-15 08:40 in 2006 composer Michel van der Aa wrote a role especially for him in his new opera After Life, a work commissioned by the Netherlands Opera in co-operation with the Holland Festival. The opera was premiered in June, 2006 in Amsterdam. recent recordings include the role of Polifemo in Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, and that of Lucifer in La Resurrezione with Contrasto Armonico conducted by Marco Vitale, and ‘Dolci Sospiri’, songs and duets of Falconieri with ensemble La Primavera. mitchell Sandler is a member the Netherlands Radio Chorus. In addition to his oratorio, concert and opera work, he is a composer and arranger. Recent commissions have been performed by ‘Medusa’, the women’s chorus of Utrecht University, and the choir ‘Trajecti Voces’.
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ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 22 27-05-15 08:40 Executive Producer ayros Sp.z.o.o., Miroslaw Bork, Marco Vitale Recording Daniel Comploi Recording producer Fabrizio Acanfora Editing & Mastering Marco Vitale Recording Location Mariagrüner Kirche Graz (Austria) Recording Date 17 - 19 September 2013 Booklet essay Karl Böhmer English translations Ellen T. Harris (Nell’africane selve, Dalla guerra amorosa) Green Man Press (Spande ancor a mio dispetto, Cuopre tal volta il cielo) Photos Dario Luisi (ensemble), Mónica Monteiro (Mitchell Sandler), Ewa Zamuli´nska (Marco Vitale) Design Ad van der Kouwe/Manifesta Rotterdam
Harpsichord French double manual after P. Taskin, 1769, built by Fabrizio Acanfora (Barcelona) in 2010. Organ sampled, after Ludovicus de Backer cabinet organ (1755) Pitch: a’ = 392 Hz
Performed on period instruments
www.ayros.eu www.contrastoarmonico.eu
This recording was made possible thanks to the support of:
Antonia, Bobby and Erika Zangger 2 3
ContrastoArmonicoCantate02bookletNW.indd 23 27-05-15 08:40 ayros C o n t r a s t o A r m o n i c o m a r c o v i t a l e H a n d e l c a n t a t e 0 2 M i t ch e l l S a n d l e r
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