CSinfonieolista a tre Ensemble Giardino di Delizie Ewa Anna Augustynowicz artistic director Lelio Colista 1629-1680 Lelio Colista (Rome 13.01.1629 – 13.10.1680) 10 Sinfonie a tre In his Musurgia Universalis, published in Rome in 1650, the Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher described the young Lelio Colista as “The Orpheus of the city of 1. Sinfonia a tre in F W-K26** 9’05 6. Sinfonia a tre in B-flat W-K28** 6’20 Rome”, deeming certain of his symphonies for guitar, lute, theorbo and harp to be 2. Sinfonia a tre in A W-K22* 9’01 7. Sinfonia a tre in G W-K37* 9’36 exemplary models. Affectionately referred to as “beloved Lelio” by Antonio Maria 3. Sinfonia a tre in C W-K14** 4’39 8. Sinfonia a tre in C W-K10** 5’35 Abbatini in an autobiographical sonnet of 1667 addressed to Sebastiano Baldini, 4. Sinfonia a tre in E minor 9. Sinfonia a tre in F W-K25* 9’08 Colista was the youngest child of Margherita Riveri de Honorantis and Pietro Colista, W-K31* 7’47 10. Ballo a tre in G minor W-K41** 3’54 a jurist and Latin scholar employed at the Vatican Library. He began his musical 5. Sinfonia a tre in C W-K13* 9’25 education as a choirboy, and at the age of eight was already engaged as a dancer for performances staged in Palazzo Barberini of Pazzia di Orlando, a “ballet with action” (ballo co’ gesti) on a libretto by Giulio Rospigliosi (the future Pope Clement IX), with music by Virgilio Mazzocchi and Marco Marazzoli, the great harpist who played the famous Barberini Harp featured in Giovanni Lanfranco’s painting Allegoria Ensemble Giardino di Delizie della musica. So clearly from an early age Colista was launched among the baroque Ewa Anna Augustynowicz baroque violin, artistic director splendours of the Barberini court, which had also attracted musicians of the calibre Katarzyna Solecka baroque violin of Frescobaldi, Kapsberger, Stefano Landi, Luigi Rossi and Domenico Mazzocchi Valeria Brunelli baroque cello (brother of the Virgilio mentioned above). Fabrizio Carta archlute, baroque guitar Colista attended the Collegio Romano, where he made friends with Caspar Schott, Elisabetta Ferri harpsichord, organ another Jesuit, as well as Kircher, with whom Cardinal Fabio Chigi, the future Pope Alexander VII, was also to take lessons in counterpoint. Colista’s qualities as a virtuoso lutenist were soon recognized, and from 1652 there are records of him *Ewa Anna Augustynowicz 1st violin playing at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where Abbatini was chapel master. **Katarzyna Solecka 1st violin Moreover, in the first of the two volumes of hisItinerarium Exstaticum (Rome, 1656), Kircher mentions an Accademia at which Colista played the lute, with the violin parts entrusted to Michelangelo Rossi, described post-mortem as “excellent in the art of music and especially in playing the violin”, and Salvatore Mazzella, the Neapolitan violinist who composed the collection of Balli published in Rome in 1689. When Fabio Chigi was elected Pope, Colista became the “Papal equerry” (1656),

Recording: 4-7 November 2019, Saint Francis Church, Trevi, Italy Recording producer & sound engineer: Luca Ricci Editing: Luca Ricci Booklet: Pasquale Imbrenda Cover: A Bridge on the Blue (2019), by Romina Farris (b. 1971) Photo of Giardino di Delizie: Pasquale Imbrenda p & © 2020 Brilliant Classics Chapel Master at Santa Maria del Popolo (1657-spring 1667) and “keeper of the John Playford’s An Introduction to the Skill of Musick, published in London in 1694. Sisto chapel paintings” (1660-1680). From 1659 to 1661 Antonio Cesti was also in 1675 was a Holy Year, and Colista was engaged as “concertino” lutenist in practically Rome, and on 8 September 1660 he joined the city’s foremost virtuoso musicians to all the Oratorios, including Stradella’s San Giovanni Battista. Others taking part sing two motets, a Magnificat and Antiphon by Colista in the Basilica di Santa Maria were Bernardo Pasquini at the harpsichord, Carlo Ambrogio Lonati and Carlo del Popolo. The following year Lelio composed his first oratorio (since lost), in which Mannelli on the violin, and among the six violinists of the “concerto grosso”, a young he wrote the part of the King with Cesti in mind. Summoned back to Florence, in Bolognese musicians: Arcangelo Corelli. In August of that same year, Lelio entered the end Cesti was unable to take part in the performance that took place in February the Arciconfraternita delle Sacre Stimmate di San Francesco. He died in Rome on 13 1661 at the SS. Crocifisso di San Marcello, the oratory where Colista served as chapel October 1680, without having published any of his compositions. Buried in the little master in 1667. From 1657 he was “deputy chamberlain” to Cardinal Flavio Chigi, cemetery beside the Church of the Ss. Stimmate, his mortal remains have since been nephew of Pope Alexander VII, accompanying him with Bernardo Pasquini on a lost. Colista appointed Don Livio Odescalchi, nephew of Pope Innocent XI, as the delicate diplomatic mission to France in 1664. It was this experience that turned executor of his will. Colista into a musician of international fame. As Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni was to The nine Sinfonie a tre in this world premiere recording, plus the “Ballo del sig. recall, “the Roman Lelio Colista, renowned player of the lute and guitar, composer of Colista”, come from the Giordano 15 manuscript scores kept at the Biblioteca beautiful symphonies, was taken by Legate Card. Chigi to France, where King Louis Nazionale in Turin. They date from the period of Alexander VII’s pontificate, and XIV heard him play and was highly impressed. On his return to Rome many wished we know from a note of 23 December 1664 that the Sinfonie were performed on to study with him...”. The most famous of these pupils was certainly Gaspar Sanz, Christmas Eve at Santa Maria del Popolo. They all feature a well-structured and, for who celebrated him in his Instrucción de música sobre la Guitarra Española of 1674: the most part, slow first movement that is richly expressive and melodious, along “Lelio Collista, Orfeo de estos tiempos”. with the strict counterpoint typical of the Roman school, where the fugue is almost In May 1667 Pope Alexander VII died, and Colista, who in February had presented always placed in the second-to-last movement. It is thus possible that they constituted his second and last oratorio (also lost), left Rome for Bologna. In a letter to Leopold a model that influenced composers such as Stradella, Mannelli, Lonati and Corelli I Habsburg of 9th October 1668, Cesti mentioned that he had “also met in Bologna in their ideas for trio sonatas. There may also have been some direct influence on Lelio Colista, who composes for and plays the lute excellently, a true virtuoso of the Bolognese musicians such as Giovanni Maria Bononcini (1642-1678) and Giovanni highest quality. Should Your Majesty be interested in having him at your Court, he is Battista Vitali (1632-1692), who in 1669, following Colista’s stay in Bologna, both a subject who would work well for all occasions...”. published sonatas for instrumental ensembles that reflect the handling of structure On 8th September 1669 Colista was back in Rome, where he married Margarita, and counterpoint typical of the Roman approach to the Sinfonia. This is particularly the daughter of the painter Girolamo Petrignani. The couple had 6 children, and evident in Bononcini’s use of “i canoni studiosi et osservati” (“strict, scholarly became increasingly prosperous, which was probably the cause of envy. This may canons”) and Vitali’s conviction that “essere i canoni realmente il vero esame di explain why Antimo Liberati never mentioned him in his writings, unlike Henry contrappunto” (“the canons are the true test of counterpoint”). Purcell, who spoke of the “famous Lelio Calista” in the 12th edition he revised of Of particular interest are the sinfonie WK 31 in E minor and WK 37 in G major, both of which contain sections between the first and second movements in which the Lelio Colista (Roma 13.01.1629 - ivi 13.10.1680) two violins and melodic basso alternately improvise on a framework provided by “Orfeo della città di Roma”: con queste inequivocabili parole Athanasius Kircher the basso continuo, marked with the indication “solo se piace” (“only if desired”), (Musurgia Universalis, Roma 1650) definisce un giovane Lelio Colista, portando ad reminding us that the greatest instrumentalists of the time were then in Rome. The esempio di imitazione alcune sinfonie per chitarra, liuto, tiorba ed arpa del “Lelio “bellissime sinfonie” thus bear witness to the fact that a musician now largely and amato” (come affettuosamente lo chiamerà nel 1667 Antonio Maria Abbatini wrongly forgotten was rightly held in very high esteem by famous contemporaries, in un sonetto autobiografico indirizzato a Sebastiano Baldini). Ultimogenito di including Kircher, Abbatini, Cesti, Sanz, Purcell and Pitoni. Margherita Riveri de Honorantis e di Pietro Colista (giurista e scrittore latino della © Pasquale Imbrenda Biblioteca Vaticana), inizia la sua formazione musicale come “putto cantore” e già Translation by Kate Singleton nel carnevale del 1638 compare come ballerino nella Pazzia di Orlando, un “ballo co’ gesti” andato in scena a Palazzo Barberini, su libretto di Giulio Rospigliosi, il futuro Papa Clemente IX, e musiche di Virgilio Mazzocchi e Marco Marazzoli (a quest’ultimo, grande virtuoso di arpa, era stata affidata la famosa Arpa Barberini, immortalata nell’Allegoria della musica, di Giovanni Lanfranco). Insomma, Colista è proiettato fin da giovanissimo nei fasti barocchi della corte Barberini, intorno alla quale gravitavano Frescobaldi, Kapsberger, Stefano Landi, Luigi Rossi e Domenico Mazzocchi (fratello del già ricordato Virgilio). Frequenta il Collegio Romano, dove stringe amicizia con i gesuiti Caspar Schott e Kircher (da quest’ultimo prenderà lezioni di contrappunto anche il cardinale Fabio Chigi, il futuro papa Alessandro VII). Le sue apprezzate qualità di virtuoso di liuto fanno sì che dal 1652 sia attestata Bibliography la sua presenza presso la Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, dove era Maestro di F.Testi, La musica italiana nel Seicento, vol. II, Milan 1972. cappella il già ricordato Abbatini. Sempre il Kircher (nel primo dei due volumi A. Iesuè, Colista, Lelio, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 26, Rome 1982. dell’Itinerarium Exstaticum, Roma 1656) ci testimonia di un’ Accademia alla quale G. Ciliberti, Antonio Maria Abbatini e la musica del suo tempo (1595-1679), Perugia 1986. partecipano Colista, al liuto, ed i violinisti Michelangelo Rossi, “eccellente nell’arte L. Bianconi, Il Seicento, Turin 1991. della musica e particolarmente nel sonar il violino” (come verrà definito alla sua H. Wessely-Kropik, Lelio Colista: un maestro romano prima di Corelli, Roma 2002. A. D’Ovidio, Alle soglie dello strumentalismo corelliano: Colista, Lonati, Stradella, Mannelli, scomparsa) e Salvatore Mazzella (violinista napoletano a cui si deve la raccolta di Pavia 2004. Balli, Roma 1689). Con l’elezione al pontificato di Alessandro VII Chigi, Colista J. Lionnet, "Parve che Sirio... rimembrasse una florida primavera". Scritti sulla musica a Roma nel diventa “scudiere pontificio” (1656), Maestro di Cappella presso Santa Maria del Seicento con un inedito, edited by G. Ciliberti, Bari 2018. Popolo (1657-primavera 1667) e “custode delle pitture della cappella di Sisto” (1660- 1680). Dal 1659 al 1661 è a Roma Antonio Cesti e l’8 settembre 1660 canta, insieme Lelio Calista”. Nell’Anno Santo 1675, Colista figura come liuto di “concertino” in ai più grandi virtuosi presenti a Roma, “due mottetti, un Magnificat, et Antifona” di quasi tutti gli Oratori, compreso il San Giovanni Battista di Stradella, dove sono Colista presso la Basilica di Santa Maria del Popolo. L’anno seguente Lelio compone presenti, oltre al Nostro, Bernardo Pasquini al cembalo, Carlo Ambrogio Lonati e il suo primo oratorio (perduto), dove la parte del Re era pensata appositamente per Carlo Mannelli ai violini e, ad uno dei sei violini di “concerto grosso”, un giovane il Cesti (che non potrà cantarla perché richiamato a Firenze), eseguito presso il Ss. bolognese...: Arcangelo Corelli. Nell’agosto di quello stesso anno Lelio è ammesso Crocifisso di San Marcello nel Febbraio del 1661 (Colista sarà Maestro di cappella all’Arciconfraternita delle Sacre Stimmate di San Francesco. Muore a Roma il 13 di questo Oratorio anche nel 1667). Dal 1657 è “aiutante di camera” del Card. ottobre 1680, non avendo mai pubblicato alcuna opera. Sepolto nel piccolo cimitero Flavio Chigi, nipote di Alessandro VII, ed è proprio in tale veste che accompagnerà il adiacente la Chiesa delle Ss. Stimmate, i suoi resti sono oggi perduti. Colista nomina prelato nel 1664, insieme a Bernardo Pasquini, in una delicata missione diplomatica Don Livio Odescalchi (nipote di papa Innocenzo XI) esecutore testamentario. in Francia, che renderà Colista un musicista di fama internazionale. Giuseppe Ottavio Le nove sinfonie a tre qui incise, più il “ballo del sig. Colista” (tutte in prima Pitoni così ci ricorda i fatti: “Lelio Colista Romano, celebre suonatore di liuto e di mondiale!), provengono dal manoscritto Giordano 15, conservato presso la Biblioteca chitarra, compositore di bellissime sinfonie, fu condotto dal Card. Chigi Legato a Nazionale di Torino: composte a partire dagli anni del pontificato di Alessandro latere in Francia, che fattolo sentire a Re Lodovico XIV lo applaudì estremamente, VII (da una nota del 23 dicembre 1664 sappiamo che per la vigilia di Natale presso ritornato a Roma fece molti allievi...”. Il più famoso di essi è sicuramente Gaspar Santa Maria del Popolo furono eseguite sue sinfonie), si caratterizzano tutte per avere Sanz, che nella sua Instrucción de música sobre la Guitarra Española (1674) celebra un primo movimento ben articolato, quasi sempre lento, con una ricca espressività il maestro romano: “Lelio Colista, Orfeo de estos tiempos”. Nel maggio del 1667 e cantabilità, oltre che per il rigoroso contrappunto di scuola romana (la fuga è muore Alessandro VII e Colista, che aveva a Febbraio presentato a San Marcello il sempre posizionata al penultimo movimento) e potrebbero quindi aver rappresentato suo secondo ed ultimo oratorio (anche questo perduto), lascia Roma per andare a un modello sul quale Stradella, Mannelli, Lonati e Corelli avrebbero elaborato Bologna. E’ Cesti che in una lettera indirizzata a Leopoldo I d’Asburgo il 9 ott. 1668, la loro idea di sonata a tre. Non è da escludere neanche una diretta influenza sui così ci riferisce: “Ritrovai anco a Bologna Lelio Colista che compone e suona di leuto musicisti di area bolognese quali Giovanni Maria Bononcini (1642-1678) e Giovanni in eccellenza, virtuoso di pezza, e di qualità ben degne, quando V.ra M.tà inchinasse Battista Vitali (1632-1692) che, proprio dopo il soggiorno a Bologna di Colista, haverlo ne la sua Corte, q.to è soggetto che puol servire a tutte le occorrenze...”. pubblicheranno entrambi nel 1669 delle sonate a più strumenti nelle quali è evidente L’8 settembre 1669 Colista è a Roma e sposa Margarita, figlia del pittore Girolamo il richiamo alla struttura della sinfonia ed al contrappunto di scuola romana, per Petrignani, dalla quale avrà 6 figli. Gli ultimi anni di Colista vedono la sua posizione l’utilizzo de “i canoni studiosi et osservati” (Bononcini), ed “essere i canoni realmente economica più che florida e questo sicuramente generò invidie: non si può spiegare il vero esame di contrappunto” (Vitali). Particolare menzione meritano la sinfonia altrimenti il fatto che Antimo Liberati non menzioni mai il musicista nei suoi scritti, WK 31 in mi min. e la WK 37 in Sol Magg. in quanto si distinguono per la presenza quando invece Henry Purcell (nella XII edizione, da lui riveduta, del trattato di John di alcune sezioni tra il primo e secondo movimento, in cui i due violini ed il basso Playford, An Introduction to the Skill of Musick, London 1694) parla del “famous melodico improvvisano a turno su uno schema fornito dal basso, contraddistinte dall’indicazione “solo se piace” (a ricordarci che a Roma c’erano i più grandi The Saint Francis Church in Trevi and the organ dated 1509 strumentisti del tempo). Queste “bellissime sinfonie” costituiscono dunque la prova The church of Saint Francis rises above the pre-existing church of Saint Mary, which cristallina ed incontrovertibile della bontà del giudizio che illustri contemporanei, was built around 1268. Construction began in the very early 14th century with the quali Kircher, Abbatini, Cesti, Sanz, Purcell e Pitoni, ci hanno lasciato di un musicista apse, which is considered the most important area of the building. With its single oggi così ingiustamente dimenticato. nave, the structure of the edifice reflects that of the Franciscan church of Montefalco, © Pasquale Imbrenda a medieval village on the other side of the hill. Attached to the beam that crosses the upper part of the apse is a Crucifix by the Master of the Crucifix of Trevi dating back to the early 1300s. On either side of the apse there are two important chapels built in 1357 at the behest of two influential families from Treviso: to the right, the Petroni Chapel, which houses the body of Blessed Ventura hermit of Pissignano; to the left, a funeral chapel by Valente Valenti featuring a fine memorial in polychrome marble. The fresco with scenes from the Life of the Virgin Mary in the lower part of the apse dates back to the same year, and above this there are portrayals of the four Evangelists: the decorations of the chapels with Saints, Prophets and a large Saint Christopher are also Bibliografia from this period. The fresco F.Testi, La musica italiana nel Seicento, vol. II, Milano 1972. cycles by the artist known as A. Iesuè, Colista, Lelio, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 26, Roma 1982. G. Ciliberti, Antonio Maria Abbatini e la musica del suo tempo (1595-1679), Perugia 1986. the Master of Saint Clare or L. Bianconi, Il Seicento, Torino 1991. Master of the Crucifix date H.Wessely-Kropik, Lelio Colista: un maestro romano prima di Corelli, Roma 2002. back to the first decades of the A. D’Ovidio, Alle soglie dello strumentalismo corelliano: Colista, Lonati, Stradella, Mannelli, fourteenth century. Pavia 2004. In 1354 extensions were J. Lionnet, "Parve che Sirio... rimembrasse una florida primavera". Scritti sulla musica a Roma nel begun on the west side using Seicento con un inedito, a cura di G. Ciliberti, Bari 2018. local materials. They included the portal with its lintel and banded columns. In the 15th century the lunette was embellished with a fresco portraying the Madonna and Child between Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi, and the works were completed in 1448. During the Counter-Reformation (1545 - 1563) the internal walls, then decorated with votive paintings, came to house around ten Baroque altars. Today only four of them are visible: “the Altar of the Crucifixion” commissioned by Pomponius and Christopher De Angelis in 1597; “The Altar of the Stigmate of Saint Francis”, of 1598, at the behest of Grifone Petroni; “The Altar of the Holy Spirit” erected in 1613 by Filippo Palazzi with the painting by the Baroque painter Simeone Ciburri; “The Altar of the Madonna della Neve” constructed in 1620 at the behest of Alessandro Valenti, with a painting of the crowned Madonna and Saint Peter. In 1509, the friars commissioned Paolo di Pietro di Paolo di Montefalco to build the organ on the left-side wall. Remodelled several times over the years, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was substantially rebuilt by Rodolfo Luna. The earliest nucleus, which dates back to the original commission (1509), is considered the oldest existing in Umbria and one of the oldest in Europe. The organ choir consists of ten compartments faced with paintings on canvas of Saint Didaco, Saint Clare of Assisi, Saint Buonaventura da Bagnoregio, Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Joseph, Saint Emiliano (patron of Trevi and also the first bishop of the city), The Ensemble Giardino di Delizie is a dynamic and creative Roman Baroque Ensemble Saint Bernardino of Siena, Saint Magdalene, Saint Lucretia and Saint Catherine of that was founded in 2014 by its artistic director Ewa Anna Augustynowicz. Its members Alexandria. are all specialists in the field of historical performance practice, having studied with Currently the Church is also used for concerts and recordings. eminent international masters such as E. Onofri, E. Gatti, F. Pavan, M. Testori, © Carlo Roberto Petrini B. Hoffmann, Ch. Rousset, E. Baiano etc. They also play regularly with other Conservator of the Museum Complex of San Francesco of Trevi - Perugia ensembles, including Les Eléments, Divino Sospiro, Capella Cracoviensis, Accademia Translation by Kate Singleton Montis Regalis, Europa Galante, Arianna Art Ensemble, Collegium Pro Musica, Quatuor Mosaiques, Concerto Romano, Accordone and Pomo d’Oro, I Barocchisti etc. The ensemble is based in Rome and since its foundation has pursued its activity in Italy and abroad, playing at many internationally renowned festivals and venues, such as the Almisonis Melos Festival (Turin), the Circle of the Armed Forces at the Ministry of Defence (Rome), Umberto Theatre (Rome), Polish Institute of Culture involving renowned Polish and Italian female singers and baroque vocal music (Rome), Festival Sulle Ombre del Cusanino (Filottrano), the BRQ Vantaa Music written not only by Polish, Italian and Roman male composers but also by some great Festival (Helsinki) and the Oude Musik Festival (Utrecht). It has also taken part in baroque women composers. various festivals in Poland, including the Schola Cantorum Early Music Festival, Last but not least, the name of the ensemble refers to the late medieval period when Wilanow Palace Warsaw, Società Dante Alighieri Katowice, Barok na Spiszu, it was used to describe the gardens of medicinal plants cultivated around monasteries. Festival Misericordia, as well as performing for the Festival de Música Antiga dels Later, with the rise of the Signorie, these spaces were transformed into places of Pirineus (Spain) Pietà de’ Turchini (Naples), etc. In 2018, in collaboration with the pleasure and business. The Medici family, for instance, created refined, inventive Polish Institute of Culture in Rome and Polish Consolate in Milan, Giardino di gardens around Florence, where the study of plants became an art and where works Delizie performed Polish Baroque music in various prestigious venues all over Italy, of art of different kinds were exhibited for the pleasure of their visitors. From the celebrating the 100th anniversary of Polish independence (Turin University, Società same Medici family came several popes, including Leone X and Clement VII, who del Giardino in Milan, Museum of Instruments in Rome). promoted the love of Art in 16th century Rome and Florence. The Giardino di Delizie musicians believe in the need to “saper ben parlare per ben suonare”. The intensity and excitement of their performances is also the fruit of their extensive historical research, which has led to the rediscovery of masterpieces by Italian composers centred in Rome, and those of Polish and Italian composers active at the court of the Polish kings. The ensemble’s first recording featured Lonati’s Sinfonie a tre, released by Brilliant Classics in 2019, which received widespread critical acclaim. The American magazine “Fanfare” wrote: “These are spirited performances, notable not just for their technical polish, but also for their heart and human excitement. I can’t imagine this level of achievement being surpassed anytime soon, if at all.” The group’s second recording, devoted to 17th century Polish instrumental music, was released in March 2020 by Brilliant Classics. This is its third album, featuring the 10 sinfonie a tre of Lelio Colista, another Roman composer admired in his own time and inexplicably forgotten by posterity. It is the first modern recording of these works. The ensemble is already working on two new recordings that will be released We would particularly like to thank in 2021. The latest additions to the ensemble’s varied repertoire are several projects PASQUALE IMBRENDA and ASSOCIAZIONE BUCCINESI NEL MONDO for supporting this project financially and the TOWN HALL OF TREVI for allowing us to record this album in the Church of Saint Francis. and the artist ROMINA FARRIS for lettings us use one of her beautiful paintings for the cover of this album.