STRAVAGANZA» DEI MEDICI Intermedi (1589) Per «La Pellegrina» Performing Edition: Hugh Keyte
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
2 UNA «STRAVAGANZA» DEI MEDICI Intermedi (1589) per «La pellegrina» Performing edition: Hugh Keyte Emma Kirkby soprano Emily Van Evera soprano Tessa Bonner soprano Nigel Rogers tenor Taverner Consort, Choir & Players ANDREW PARROTT 1988 3 Intermedio I Intermedio III The Harmony of the Spheres Apollo slays the monster at Delphi L’Harmonie des Sphères Apollon tue le monstre à Delphes Die Harmonie der Sphären Apollo besiegt das Ungeheuer zu Delphi 1 Dalle più alte sfere 4:43 12 Qui di carne si sfama a 12 2:38 Antonio Archilei or Emilio de’ Cavalieri 13 O valoroso Dio a 4 1:26 Emma Kirkby soprano Evelyn Tubb, Kate Eckersley sopranos 2 Noi che, cantando a 8 2:13 Mary Nichols alto, Richard Wistreich bass 3 Sinfonia a 6 2:28 14 O mille volte mille a 8 2:23 4 Dolcissime Sirene a 6 Luca Marenzio Tessa Bonner soprano Non mai tanto splendore a 6 1:16 Intermedio IV 5 A voi, reali Amanti a 6 cori 3:56 The Golden Age is foretold 6 Coppia gentil a 6 1:21 Annonce de l’Âge d’or Cristofano Malvezzi Die Weissagung des Goldenen Zeitalters Intermedio II 15 Io, che dal Ciel cader 1:51 The singing contest between the Pierides Giulio Caccini and the Muses / Le Concours de chant Emily Van Evera soprano entre les Piérides et les Muses 16 Sinfonia a 6 1:32 Der Gesangswettstreit zwischen Pieriden 17 Or che le due grand’Alme a 6 2:15 und Musen Cristofano Malvezzi 18 Miseri abitator a 5 1:57 7 Sinfonia a 5 1:16 Giovanni de’ Bardi 8 Belle ne fe’ Natura a 3 1:24 Tessa Bonner, Evelyn Tubb sopranos, Mary Nichols alto 9 Chi dal delfino a 6 1:47 10 Se nelle voci nostre a 12 2:36 11 O figlie di Piero a 6; a 18 2:14 Luca Marenzio 4 Intermedio V Intermedio VI Arion and the dolphin Jove’s gift to mortals of rhythm and harmony Arion et le dauphin Jupiter fait don aux mortels du rythme Arion und der Delphin et de l’harmonie / Jupiter schenkt den Menschen Rhythmus und Harmonie 19 Io, che l’onde raffreno 2:09 Emma Kirkby soprano 25 Sinfonia 4:01 20 E noi, con questa bella diva a 5 2:46 Dal vago e bel sereno a 6 Godi, Coppia Reale a 5 26 O quale, o qual risplende a 6 1:25 Emma Kirkby soprano Cristofano Malvezzi Che vede uscir da voi a 5 27 Godi, turba mortal 1:17 E discacciar dal mondo a 3 Emilio de’ Cavalieri Emma Kirkby, Evelyn Tubb sopranos, Emily Van Evera soprano Simon Grant bass 28 O fortunato giorno a 7 cori 2:29 Onde farà ritorno a 5 Cristofano Malvezzi Cristofano Malvezzi 29 O che nuovo miracolo a 5, a 3 5:18 21 Fanfara 0:54 Emilio de’ Cavalieri after Girolamo Fantini Emma Kirkby, Emily Van Evera sopranos, 22 Sinfonia a 6 1:42 Mary Nichols alto Cristofano Malvezzi 70:19 23 Dunque fra torbide onde 4:52 Jacopo Peri Nigel Rogers tenor Andrew King, Rogers Covey-Crump tenors 24 Lieti solcando il mare a 7 2:10 Cristofano Malvezzi 5 Emma Kirkby soprano Taverner Consort Basses Taverner Choir Armonia (1), Anfitrite (19, 20) Jeremy Birchall additional voices in 6, 28, 29 Emily Van Evera soprano Sopranos Stephen Charlesworth Sopranos Maga (15), Giove (27) Tessa Bonner Alan Ewing Rachel Bevan Tessa Bonner soprano Kate Eckersley Simon Grant Jill Crozet Fanciullo (4) Twig Hall Donald Greig Sally Dunkley Nigel Rogers tenor Emma Kirkby John Milne Carol Hall Arione (23) Evelyn Tubb Bruce Russell Nicola Jenkin Emily Van Evera Richard Savage Rachel Platt Julian Walker Jane Seymour Altos Richard Wistreich Mary Nichols Altos Caroline Trevor Terry Anderson Catherine Woolf Tenors John Mark Ainsley Tenors Simon Berridge Philip Cartledge Joseph Cornwell Christopher Gunnes Rogers Covey-Crump Basses Philip Daggett Stephen Jackson Charles Daniels Philip Lawson John Dudley Simon Littlewood Paul Elliott Ken Roles Philip Fryer Francis Steele Andrew King Rufus Müller Leigh Nixon Mark Padmore Angus Smith 6 Taverner Players Trombone Bass lutes (E & D) Charles Toet Timothy Crawford Violin Richard Cheetham Martin Eastwell John Holloway Trevor Herbert Tom Finucane Martin Pope (bass) Jakob Lindberg Viola Judy Tarling Organ Mandola John Toll James Tyler Lira da braccio Lucy Carolan Pavlo Beznosiuk Cittern Alan Wilson Nicholas Hayley William Badley Regal Lirone Neapolitan guitar John Toll Erin Headley Christopher Wilson Psaltery Tenor viol Spanish guitar Andrew Lawrence-King Wendy Gillespie Tom Finucane Imogen Barford Bass viol Tambourine Double harp Mark Caudle Robert Howes Francis Kelly Richard Boothby Andrew Lawrence-King Trumpet Julia Hodgson Michael Laird Chitarrone Great bass viol Michael Harrison Nigel North William Hunt Jakob Lindberg Alison Crum Paula Chateauneuf Violone Tenor lutes (A & G) Francis Baines William Badley Flute Hugh Cherry Lisa Beznosiuk David Miller Paul O’Dette Cornett Christopher Wilson Bruce Dickey Michael Harrison 7 Una «stravaganza» dei Medici Yet these works are about more than just solo Intermedi for La pellegrina display, and it is in the ensemble numbers, ranging from small vocal and instrumental groups to vast The celebrated 1589 Florentine intermedi recorded polychoral spectacle, that this account really makes here occupy a special place in music history, for they its mark. Even the briefest glance at the personnel list represent a final highpoint, more lavish and ambitious reads like a veritable Who’s Who of the British early than anything that had gone before, in the intermedio music movement, with many of the ensemble singers genre that flourished before the emergence of opera and players either already well established or going on at the turn of the seventeenth century. This splendid to make names for themselves as the finest specialists recording was made by Andrew Parrott and his in the field. With this vast array of talent, it was hardly Taverner ensembles shortly before the 400th anni- surprising that the recording met with notable critical versary of the 1589 perform ances. It was not the first acclaim. Writing in Gramophone , Iain Fenlon praised recording to attempt a revival of this music for modern Parrott’s performance for ‘its effective deployment of audiences, but it was the first to do it handsome contrasts of timbre and instrumental groupings, and justice, and it remains the most successful, thanks to of added orna men tation. Above all, the music is never its brilliant combination of musical talent, interpretative allowed to drag; the final ballo for example [...] is flair and thoroughgoing scholarship. pursued at such a brisk pace that a genuine sense of The Taverner Choir was founded by Andrew Parrott climax and summation is created.’ The record duly won in 1973, when it made its debut at the Bath Festival. the 1989 Edison Award; and when, in 1990, it served Together with its sister groups, the Taverner Consort as the basis of the soundtrack for a sumptuous video (a solo vocal ensemble) and Players, it soon became of the intermedi – complete with baroque-style flying one of the most vibrant forces in the British period machines, dragons, dolphins and even a galleon full performance movement, with a repertoire ranging from of sailors – the film went on to win a 1990 Prix Italia Machaut, through the great vocal traditions of the 16th special prize and a Golden Gate Award at the 1991 to 18th centuries, to new works by John Tavener and San Francisco International Film Festival. Arvo Pärt. The Taverners’ performances of Bach’s vocal The foundation on which this success was built was works, based on ground-breaking research by Joshua the fastidious background research by Parrott and Rifkin and by Parrott himself, have drawn particular the musicologist Hugh Keyte. As well as studying the attention and praise for their combination of clarity, music from the occasion as published in 1591, with vibrancy and often provocative scholarly insight. Those its meticulous record of the complex instrumentation, qualities are in evidence here, not least in some out- they also consulted contemporary souvenir programme standing solo singing from Emma Kirkby, Emily Van books and Bastiano de’ Rossi’s printed account of the Evera and Nigel Rogers, all of whom display an enviable celebrations, in addition to bringing to bear the most command of the highly-wrought vocal coloratura and up-to-date research on musical ornamentation of the ornamentation of the period. period. The result is an exceptionally vivid re-creation 8 of the late-sixteenth-century Florentine soundworld, The event was organised by the superintendant of with its rich arsenal of continuo resources and court spectacles, Giovanni de’ Bardi (a leading light of exuberant vocal display. It is entirely appropriate that, the Florentine camerata), who provided the invenzioni in the Taverners’ fortieth-anniversary year, this most (or plots) and acted as director, as well as composing remark able of their recordings should be making its the Devils’ lament that brings Intermedio IV to a close. reappearance. Most of the texts were by the young poet Ottavio The raison d’etre of the 1589 intermedi was the Rinuccini, who went on to provide libretti for some of marriage in May that year of Ferdinando de’ Medici the earliest operas, including Peri’s Dafne and Monte- and his distant cousin Christine of Lorraine, grand- verdi’s Arianna. The musical director and stage manager daughter of Catherine de’ Medici, the late queen was Emilio de’ Cavalieri, overseer of artistic activities at mother of France. This union decisively shifted Tuscany the court; Cavalieri himself contributed several musical (of which Ferdinando was grand duke) away from numbers, including the grand finale. the prevailing Spanish Habsburg hegemony, towards Foremost among the musical collaborators was Luca closer ties with the French crown.