CON ARTE E MAESTRIA Virtuoso violin ornamentation from the dawn of the Italian Baroque Monteverdi String Band In Focus Oliver Webber violin Steven Devine organ & harpsichord Con arte e maestria Giovanni Bassano (c.1561–1617) Gärtner (dates unknown) 1. Ricercata prima [2:29] 9. Toccata [2:34] Virtuoso violin ornamentaon from Cipriano de Rore (c.1515–1565) Biagio Marini the dawn of the Italian Baroque (ornaments by Riccardo 10. Sinfonia ‘L’Orlandina’ [2:09] Rognoni, c.1550–c.1620) 2. Anchor che col parre [3:35] Giovanni Gabrieli (c.1555–1612) Monteverdi String Band In Focus 11. Toccata del secondo tuono [2:16] Giovanni Pierluigi da Oliver Webber violin Palestrina (c.1525–1594) Tomas Luis de Victoria (c.1548–1611) Steven Devine organ & harpsichord (ornaments by Oliver Webber b.1969) (ornaments by Giovanni Basta 3. Deh hor foss’io col vago della luna [4:07] Bovicellim, fl. late 16th century) 12. Dilectus tuus candidus [6:40] Ascanio Mayone (c.1565–1627) 4. Canzon francese prima [2:39] Cipriano de Rore (ornaments by Oliver Webber) Biagio Marini (1594–1663) 13. Signor mio caro [3:50] 5. Sinfonia ‘La Gardana’ [2:06] Oliver Webber Oliver Webber (aer Claudio Monteverdi et al.) (aer Giovanni Bassano) 14. Ciaccona [4:23] 6. Ricercata [1:59] Michelangelo Rossi (c.1601–1656) Thomas Crecquillon (c.1505–c.1557) 15. Toccata nona [3:48] About Oliver Webber: (ornaments by Oliver Webber) 7. Par trop souffrir de fortune Dario Castello (1602–1631) ‘Oliver Webber [bows] with rapier-like eloquence’ ennemie [4:29] 16. Sonata prima [4:05] Gramophone Orlando di Lasso (c.1532–1594) Carlo G (fl. c.1600–1620) About Steven Devine: (ornaments by Girolamo 17. Convers planctum [2:41] dalla Casa, d.1601) ‘[Devine] is authoritave, suave, technically dazzling and delivers immaculately 8. Susanne ung jour [4:36] manicured ornaments that lend brilliance and expressive introspecon when required’ BBC Music Magazine Giovanni Paolo Caprioli (c.1580–c.1627) Con Arte e Maestria: the culminaon Giovanni Basta Bovicelli, and the (ornaments by Oliver Webber) of a virtuoso tradion mysterious Carlo G, we present three 18. Vulneras cor meum [2:57] madrigals, a chanson, a motet and a canzona, Milanese violinist Francesco Rognoni’s each newly ornamented in the style of one Antonio Mortaro (fl. 1587–1610) ornamental showpiece Io son ferito, which of these great masters. (ornaments by Oliver Webber) appears in the second volume of his Selva 19. Canzona ‘La Malvezza’ [4:27] di varii passaggi, 1620, is caponed Modo Il vero modo di diminuir: ornamentaon di passeggiar con arte e maestria – ‘manner in pracce Aurelio Virgiliano (fl. c.1600) of ornamenng with art and mastery’; con 20. [Ricercata] on arte e maestria is used to this day to denote The basis of most ornamentaon during this ‘Vesva i colli’ [1:25] excellence and consummate crasmanship period was diminuon: the creaon of in creave fields from music to cookery, measured paerns of faster notes from Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina jewellery and architecture. slower ones; for example, from a minim we (ornaments by Oliver Webber) can create paerns of four quavers, eight 21. Così le chiome mie [3:44] The work features a breathtaking range of semiquavers, or sixteen demisemiquavers. ornamental devices: runs and florid passages, We are fortunate that a veritable treasure Andrea Gabrieli (c.1532–1585) trills, vast leaps, doed rhythms, repeated trove of diminuon resources from this 22. Intonazione quarto toni [1:24] notes and echoes, all created from a simple period survives: as well as complete works, original melody in minims and semibreves. fully ornamented, oen in mulple versions, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina It represents the culminaon of a fascinang there are treases which not only explain (ornaments by Francesco tradion of solo ornamentaon, which how diminuons are created and how to Rognoni, d. c.1626) flourished especially in northern Italy from apply them, but also give hundreds of 23. Io son ferito [6:08] the early sixteenth to the early seventeenth examples. centuries. Il vero modo di diminuir (’the true manner In this recording we present some of the of diminuon’) appears in the tles of two Total playing me [78:45] more remarkable works of its final generaon, of the treases which have contributed to beginning with Francesco Rognoni’s father, this recording: Girolamo dalla Casa (1584) Riccardo; in the interests of not only and Riccardo Rognoni (1592). That these celebrang but also giving new life to this two ‘true’ methods differ significantly tradion, we also offer something completely reveals the variety of approach among new: in addion to published ornamented individual performers and teachers. works by the Rognonis, Girolamo dalla Casa, Five ornamental personalies col vago della luna, the first of three sengs in this recording of Roman master Giovanni The approach of Girolamo dalla Casa is Pierluigi da Palestrina, whose madrigals were strikingly systemac: for him, the true especially popular as vehicles for virtuoso method consists of the skilful combinaon diminuons. of four essenal subdivisions of the beat: into four, eight, twelve and sixteen. In order The singer Giovanni Basta Bovicelli offers to prepare his readers, he begins with us something quite different: he quavers only, then semiquavers only, disnguishes diminuons, or passaggi, from quavers and semiquavers combined, accen – brief, rhythmically fluid paerns, and so on, ending his first volume with used to connect the notes in a phrase with fully mixed examples, before presenng charm and elegance. The delight in his complete works, fully ornamented in sengs comes from the oen surprising the vero modo, in the second volume. transions and combinaons of passaggi and accen. In this recording, dalla Casa is represented by one of his versions of Susanne ung jour Instrumentalists need feel no guilt at and a newly devised version of a chanson appropriang vocal repertoire: instrucons by the Flemish composer Thomas to imitate the voice are almost universal, Crecquillon, a parcular favourite of and Francesco Rognoni specifically dalla Casa. recommends the vocal part of his trease to instrumentalists for this very reason. In comparison with dalla Casa, Riccardo Bovicelli’s version of Spanish composer Rognoni’s approach diverges more oen Tomas Luis de Victoria’s [Qualis est] from stepwise moon: one characterisc dilectus tuus candidus, replete with rich, figure is a syncopated leap upwards dark textures, is contrasted with a newly followed by a descending scale. Flourishes created version of de Rore’s Signor mio caro: of an octave aer a cadence also feature here, the high tessitura, short phrases and prominently. occasional silences, enhanced by Bovicelli-inspired accen and occasional This style is heard here in his version of the passaggi, contribute to a perfumed, Flemish madrigalist Cipriano de Rore’s ephemeral atmosphere. Anchor che col parre, and in Deh hor foss’io The discovery of the Carlo G manuscript in striking features include a prevalence of his 1609 volume pleads the reader’s bass, is inspired by figuraon from a number 2007 (the author’s name, obscured by a doed rhythms, octave leaps, slurs of various tolerance for occasional rule-breaking in of early seventeenth-century ciaccona sengs, smudge, has never been definively lengths, triplet paerns and an extended, ornamental passages, without which ‘it is as well as ornamental paerns of the confirmed) was a wonderful gi to students elaborate final cadence. impossible to make a beauful effect’. Rognonis. of the early seventeenth century: a collecon of some 300 pages of elaborately The virtuosic treatment of Io son ferito is the Biagio Marini has long been known as one Dario Castello’s two volumes of ensemble ornamented songs (by Carlo G himself as model for the interpretaon of Così le of the most important composers for the sonatas in sl moderno show the emerging well as a selecon of notable chiome mie presented here: the fluid violin in the early seventeenth century; his sonata style – through-composed with short, contemporaries) with fully realised accen and occasional bursts of extravagant sinfonie – brief gems of works which play contrasng secons – which was to connuo accompaniment, it offers a passaggi and energec dong seem fing with the listener’s expectaons – make a characterise much seventeenth-century unique window into how a simple to the character of the madrigal, which perfect foil for the more extended instrumental wring; his figuraon reflects melody and bass line might have celebrates the burgeoning of love amongst diminuons. the ornamental pracces of his behaved ‘in the wild’. Like Bovicelli’s the sights, sounds and fragrances of spring. contemporaries: many of the runs, passages versions, these feature a combinaon of The toccata aributed to one Herr Gärtner and accen which Rognoni et al. classify as brief, rhythmically supple accen and Other instrumental genres of Nuremberg (about whom nothing more ornamental are wrien into Castello’s music. full-blown passaggi. Convers planctum, is known) is found in a precious manuscript a seng from Psalm 29, is followed by a These exploraons of diminuon pracce are collecon from Wrocław which also contains Castello’s sonata prima is introduced by a sensuous Song of Solomon seng by the framed by a selecon of toccatas, ricercars a selecon of diminuons by Francesco toccata by the Roman organist and violinist Bolognese priest Giovanni Paolo Caprioli, and intonazioni which funcon as preludes, Rognoni. Marini spent me in Germany, Michelangelo Rossi; very much in the ornamented especially for this recording and sonatas and canzonas which shine a and it is not hard to imagine a German tradion which extends from Merulo to in the same style. light into a different area of instrumental violinist introducing one of his sonatas Bach, Rossi’s unique voice can be heard in performance.