Sonatas for violin and viola da gamba Girandole Armoniche at the Habsburg Court Esther Crazzolara Extravagantes Seicento Teodoro Baù Federica Bianchi Tracklist ⁄ English ⁄ Français ⁄ Italiano Extravagantes Seicento Menu A 113 Sonatas for violin and viola da gamba at the Habsburg Court Ignazio Albertini (ca. 1644-1685) 1 Sonata I in D minor for violin and continuo 7’11 (Sonatinae XII violino solo, Vienna and Frankfurt am Main, 1692) Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli (1624-1670) 2 Sonata II “La Cesta” in A minor for violin and continuo 6’49 (Sonate à violino solo, per chiesa e camera, Op. 3, Innsbruck, 1660) Johann Kaspar Kerll (1627-1693) 3 Ciaccona in C major for keyboard 2’17 Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (1620-1680) 4 Sonata IX in A minor for violin, viola da gamba and continuo 4’56 (Duodena selectarum sonatarum, Nuremberg, 1659) 5 Sonata IV in D major for violin and continuo 8’15 (Sonatae unarum fidium, Nuremberg, 1664) Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704) 6 Sonata V in E minor for violin and continuo 10’48 (Sonatae violino solo, Salzburg, 1681) Anonymous (attributed to Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber) Sonatina â viola de gamba aut violino solo (Kremsierer Gambensonate) 7 Sonatina 4’19 8 Allemande 1’52 9 Courente 1’25 10 Sarabande 2’55 11 Gigue 1’29 Samuel Friedrich Capricornus (1628-1665) 12 Ciaccona a 2 in D minor for violin, viola da gamba and continuo 4’52 (Partiturbuch Ludwig, Wolfenbüttel 1662 – no. 21) Total length 57’17 3 Menu Girandole Armoniche Esther Crazzolara violin Matthieu Besseling, Amsterdam 2012, after Guarneri del Gesù (Cremona, ca. 1737) Teodoro Baù viola da gamba Sergio Gistri, Colle val d’Elsa 2006, after Michel Colichon (Paris, 1691) Federica Bianchi harpsichord Sebastiano Calì, Giarre 2014, after Michael Mietke (Berlin, 1702/1704) Recorded 1-4 January 2017, San Leonardo - Badia (Bz) Recording producer: Emiliano Rodolfi – Sound engineer: Daniel Comploi – Editing: Daniel Comploi, Alessandro Denabian – Mastering: Daniel Comploi Produced by Girandole Armoniche ℗ 2019 Girandole Armoniche, under exclusive licence to Outhere Music France © 2019 Outhere Music France 4 Menu A musical journey through Austria in the footsteps of the Italian tradition The Austrian Imperial court represented the primary point of reference for the development of the arts in seventeenth-century Europe. The enlightened court model introduced by Emperor Ferdinand III (1608-1657) and his young heir Leopold I (1640-1705) was the result of their rigorous education based on the study of phi- losophy, religion and music rather than of military strategy and politics. The imperial support was not limited to merely funding the musical and theatrical events that livened up the court but the emperors also took an active part as composers and instrumentalists. What during the most critical years of the Thirty Years’ War (1638- 1648) had been the bulwark of Catholicism became the image of a culturally cosmopolitan centre, mindful of the arts; an image that was nevertheless vital in enabling Ferdinand III and Leopold I to maintain the political dignity pertaining to their empire and role. Under Ferdinand III, who was consecrated emperor in 1637, the court ensemble‘s level was so high that Flemish, German and primarily Italian musicians were attracted by the many possibilities and security that such a powerful and open environment could offer. At the Viennese court there were composers such as Giovanni Valentini, already Kapellmeister since 1626 during the rule of Emperor Ferdinand II, Antonio Bertali and Giovanni Felice Sances and their tasks included providing all the court’s musical activities for the liturgical festivities as well as for the day to day and official entertainment. Sacred and secular peninsular musical genres, the madrigal and the cantata, opera, the vocal concertato and the use of basso continuo, were gradually assimilated into the local composition styles and found more room and possibility to experiment there, also with regards to instrumental writing, especially for the violin family, as evidenced by Valentini’s printed collections and Antonio Bertali’s handwritten compositions.1 It seems that for a short period of time between 1649 and 1651, despite his Protestant orientation, Samuel Friedrich Capricornus (1628-1665), Kapellmeister in Stuttgart since 1657, worked in Vienna too and came into contact with the court musicians. The encounter with the Italian masters was not insigni- ficant. A large part of his vast oeuvre of four hundred titles, delivered in print and in manuscript, observed the Italian model closely, especially for Latin motets, oratories and instrumental sonatas. In the Partiturbuch, 1 Bertali did not personally look after the publication of his music and a good part of his oeuvre was lost. The only confirmed printed evidence comes from two anthologies for various authors, Teatro musicale de concerti ecclesiastici a due, tre e quattro voci… by Giorgio Rolla, Milan 1649 and the Thesaurus musicus, by Johann Kaspar Bencard, Dillingen, 1671. What manuscripts survive today however, correspond to a fraction of what is listed in the Distinta Specificatione dell’Archivio Musicale per il Servizio della Cappella, e Camera Cesarea […] Leopold I (ms. at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna). 5 English compiled in 1662 by the copyist Jacob Ludwig for Giovanni Felice Sances, former members of the duke Augusto Wolfenbüttel, only his Ciaccona a court, plus Antonio Draghi, Giovanni Bononcini (son 2 in D minor for violin, viola da gamba and basso of Giovanni Maria Bononcini, master of the chapel continuo is found.2 It is a fairly short composition, music of the Duomo in Modena) and Andrea Ziani. which reinterprets the Italian chaconne’s resolution Ignazio Albertini (ca. 1644-1685) dedicated his with simple variations of the violin and the viola da only collection of Sonatinae XII violino solo (1692) to gamba. Capricornus deliberately uses an irregular Emperor Leopold I, perhaps to obtain his favor and resolution of the ostinato bass of the chaconne, some assignments. In fact, at the time of their com- different from its formalization in the Cento partite position, Albertini was a composer at the service of sopra passacagli of 1637 by Girolamo Frescobaldi. the Dowager Empress Eleonora Gonzaga-Nèvers. This model was religiously followed, conversely, Unfortunately the collection did not have the desired by the organist Johann Kaspar Kerll (1627-1693) effect as it came out posthumously in 1685, several in his Ciaccona in C major for keyboard composed years after the violent death of the author. Albertini’s no later than 1676. Nothing unusual for an almost sonatas observe the model of the sonata concertata totally Italianized composer, between the years in the modern style of Dario Castello, in some ca- of training in Vienna under the then Ferdinand’s ses they favour the style of Carlo Farina and Biagio Kappellmeister Giovanni Valentini and Johann Marini in their technical experimentation, like in their Jacob Froberger and the following period of study in use of double stops. The Sonata I in D minor is intro- Rome with Giacomo Carissimi. Several years later, duced by a Prelude with virtuosic and vaguely dra- in 1677, he too joined the Imperial music chapel as matic tones that anticipates the true sonata, whose organist of Leopold I. beginning coincides with a short Aria. The custom of The consecration in 1658 of the twenty-four year introducing the sonata with an improvised Prelude, old emperor marked the beginning of the most in- followed by a two-part Aria was practiced by very tense musical activity of the Viennese court. Much few violinists and immediately places Albertini si- more interested in music and composition than in de by side with naturalized London violinist Nicola the war politics of the empire, Leopold I was re- Matteis (1640?-1713). It is interesting how the membered for mediation and peacemaking. He Sonata in D minor is again conceived without in- surrounded himself with the best Italian musicians terruption, the different movements are devoid of available, including his mentor Antonio Bertali and real autonomy and are connected to each other by the solo violin’s elegant virtuosic expedients. The 2 The anthology also offers La Cesta by Pandolfi Mealli, falsely attributed presence of fast passages and dense diminutions to Antonio Bertali and numerous compositions by Schmelzer. carried out by the left hand, supported by accurate 6 and detailed numerical writing for the performance as the afore mentioned Johann Kaspar Kerll, Johann of the basso continuo for the harpsichord, is perhaps Jacob Froberger, and lastly Heinrich Schmelzer the reason for the lack of further signs of ornamenta- (1620-1680), who was first hired as a court violinist in tion or expression for the violin. 1649, was appointed deputy Kapellmeister in 1671 Nevertheless, the sonatas in stil moderno we- and eventually became the official Kapellmeister re usually enriched by ornaments and “affections” in 1679. In this productive environment Schmelzer aimed at bringing the drama of the musical text to composed and had his best musical works printed. extremes and enhancing the close connection with In Nuremberg in 1659 he published a collection the vocal repertoire. A good example are the sona- of trio sonatas for two violins, or violin and viola da tas Op. 3 and Op. 4 for violin and basso continuo by gamba, and basso continuo, the Duodena selec- Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli (1624-1670), tarum sonatarum, dedicated to Leopold I, who had published in Innsbruck in 1660. The collection Op. just been consecrated as emperor. There is only one 3 is dedicated to the Archduchess Anna (Archduke printed edition of the sonatas, but they received a Ferdinand Karl’s widow), Op. 4 to the Archduke remarkable reception, as evidenced by their pre- Sigismund Franz of Austria. The Sonata II, called sence in various manuscript collections.4 In Sonata “La Cesta” because it is dedicated to Antonio Cesti, IX Schmelzer renounces every written indication of is also deeply linked to the model of Dario Castello.