Dario Castello (fl. 1st half 17th century) Ignazio Dona (c.1570–1638) Venice 1629 1. Sonata terza [b] [5:41] 11. Maria Virgo [a]* [4:04] Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) Alessandro Grandi 2. Exulta, filia Sion [a] [5:19] 12. Salva me, salutaris Hosa [a]* [3:43] The Gonzaga Band Biagio Marini (1594–1663) Benedeo Rè (fl. 1607–1629) 3. Canzon prima, 13. Lilia convallium [a]* [3:40] Faye Newton soprano (tracks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10–13 & 16) per quaro violini, ò corne [e] [3:12] Jamie Savan director, cornes (treble, mute, tenor) (tracks 1, 3, 5, 10–13 & 15–17) Marno Pesen Helen Roberts corne (tracks 1, 3, 11, 16 & 17) Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) 14. Corrente dea La Priula [f]* [2:13] Oliver Webber violin (tracks 3, 4, 6, 9, 12–13, 15 & 17) 4. Paratum cor meum [g] [4:22] Theresa Caudle violin, corne (tracks 3, 4, 6, 9, 11–13 & 17) Biagio Marini Steven Devine organ, harpsichord (all tracks) Biagio Marini 15. Sonata senza cadenza [e] [3:04] 5. Sonata per l’organo, violino, ò corneo [e] [3:47] Heinrich Schütz 16. Exultavit cor meum [g] [5:20] Alessandro Grandi (1586–1630) 6. Regina caeli [d] [3:04] Dario Castello 17. Sonata decima sema, Marno Pesen (c.1600–c.1648) in ecco [b] [7:15] 7. Corrente dea La Granda [f]* [2:00] Orazio Tardi (1602–1677) Total playing me [68:27] 8. Plaudite, cantate [h]* [4:32] About The Gonzaga Band: Biagio Marini * world premiere recording ‘Faye Newton sings delightfully, and the players – 9. Capriccio, che due violini, especially Savan on the cornett are impossible to fault’ sonano quaro par [e] [4:15] Gramophone Giovanni Carrone (fl. 1629) ‘Savan and company have an instinctive feel for this repertoire, their 10. Congratulamini mihi [c]* [2:48] persuasive performances delivered with terrific flair and panache’ BBC Radio 3 CD Review 1629: A Year in the Musical Life of Venice composers within a richer and broader context. To that end, we have made new edions of Once again I cast my anchor in Venice, where several pieces which are performed here for the in the days of my youth I studied under the first me in nearly four centuries. All the music great Gabrieli [...] Staying in Venice with old was published (or submied for publicaon) in friends, I found the manner of musical Venice in 1629. Some of the composers lived composion somewhat changed. They have parally abandoned the old church modes and worked in Venice; others worked in while seeking to charm modern ears with provincial cies within its musical orbit. new llaons. Among the composers represented on this Heinrich Schütz, from the preface to Symphoniae Sacrae (Venice, 1629) recording, it was perhaps the music of Alessandro Grandi, Monteverdi’s erstwhile By the me of his second visit to Venice in deputy at St Mark’s, that was to have the 1628–29, Heinrich Schütz was well-established greatest resonance for Schütz. Grandi was a as Hoapellmeister of the Saxon court in specialist in the small scale, wring solo-voice Dresden – one of the most presgious musical motets with ritornelli for two violins, creang establishments north of the Alps. Having a fusion of vocal monody and instrumental studied in Venice some two decades earlier trio sonata textures that was to define the (1609–1612), the lavish polychoral style he new Venean style. Grandi had le Venice Sources had learned from Giovanni Gabrieli was for Bergamo in 1627, but maintained es with e. Biagio Marini: Sonate, symphonie, canzoni rapidly becoming outmoded among progressive the city, publishing his third and final book a. Lor enzo Calvi: Quarta raccolta de sacri … con altre curiose & moderne invenoni. Italian composers, and he was keen to study of concertato motets there in 1629. Regina can … de diversi eccellenssimi autori Opera Oava (Venice: Gardano/Magni, the latest musical developments at first hand. caeli (track 6) is typical of the pieces in this (Venice: Vincen, 1629). 1629). [Title page dedicaon July 1626.] collecon, with its close imitaon between The most famous musician in Venice at this instruments and voice, and increasingly b. Dario Castello: Sonate concertate in sl f. Marno Pesen: Il secondo libro delle me was of course Claudio Monteverdi, elaborate ornamentaon. moderno (Venice: Gardano/Magni, 1629). corren alla francese (Venice: Vincen, 1630). maestro di cappella at St Mark’s Basilica since [Title page dedicaon 15 September 1627.] [Title page dedicaon 1 December 1629.] 1613. But he was not the only aracon; as Fortuitously, 1629 also saw the publicaon of Jerome Roche has pointed out, Schütz’s two landmark collecons of small-scale c. Giov anni Carrone: Il primo libro delli g. Henrici Sagiarii [Heinrich Schütz]: intenon was ‘to observe a musical world’, instrumental music: Dario Castello’s second mote a una, due, tre, et quaro voci Symphoniae sacrae one which was ‘peopled by many lesser though volume of Sonate concertate in sl moderno, (Venice: Vincen, 1629). (Venice: Gardano/Magni, 1629). by no means insignificant lights.’ And so, in and Biagio Marini’s seminal Op. 8 collecon of essence, the aim of our project is to explore curiose & moderne invenoni. What lile we d. Alessandro Grandi: Mote a una, et due h. Horao [Orazio] Tardi: Celes fiori musicali … this musical world, to rediscover the music know of Castello’s biography is gleaned through voci con sinfonie di due violini … libro terzo a voce sola (Venice: Vincen, 1629). of some of its lesser-known inhabitants, and the tle pages of his publicaons, where he (Venice: Vincen, 1629). to understand the music of its more familiar claims to be a musician at St Mark’s and head of a company of wind players. His skill as an cornes suggests a familiarity with Gabrieli’s in four parts’ is an example of such innovaon or without instruments. On a smaller scale, his instrumentalist is borne out in the virtuosic sonata for three violins ‘or other similar in violin technique. instrucons for the performance of Maria Virgo demands of his wring, which exceed those instruments’ (1615), while his Sonata per l’organo (track 11) demonstrate similar flexibility: it can of most other composers of his generaon. In (track 5) is most unusual for its me in being a Claudio Monteverdi is one of a number of be sung by two, three or four voices, which may the preface to his first book of sonatas (1621) fully-realised duo for organ and obbligato ‘diverse and most excellent’ composers also be substuted by instruments ad libitum. he advises his readers ‘not to lose heart in instrument; the laer also clearly demonstrates represented in Lorenzo Calvi’s 1629 anthology, We perform this piece with a single voice and playing [these pieces] more than once, because through its Phrygian-inflected opening that the Quarta raccolta de sacri can, the unique three cornes, including a tenor corne on they will then be pracsed and in me will old church modes were not yet enrely source for Exulta, filia Sion (track 2), a solo- the lowest part. be easy’, and, moreover, ‘I could not have abandoned. If the aforemenoned pieces look voice motet which draws on some of the made them easier while sll observing the to the musical past for inspiraon, perhaps it most progressive composional devices of Another lile-known composer is Giovanni sle moderno.’ In other words, it seems that is the Sonata senza cadenza (track 15) that the day. Dance-influenced triple-me ariosi Carrone, whose only extant composions are for Castello such virtuosity was the very most embodies the spirit of ‘curious and and organ ritornelli provide a structural contained in his Primo libro delli mote. essence of the modern style. Most of his modern invenon’ through novel composional framework, punctuated by short secons of Congratulamini mihi (track 10) is a duet for pieces are wrien for flexible instrumentaon; procedures that wily prepare and then evade declamatory recitave which give way to two sopranos to be sung in honour of a female Sonata terza (track 1) simply specifies two every opportunity to make a perfect cadence. extended virtuosic passagework such that saint, whose name is le blank in the printed soprani (violins, cornes and recorders would each line of text is treated in a contrasng source, to be supplied according to the occasion fit into this category). Sonata decima sema The early-seventeenth century witnessed manner. Other pieces in this collecon include of performance. We have chosen St Marina, (track 17), on the other hand, is scored something of a struggle for supremacy between Grandi’s Salva me, salutaris Hosa (track 12), who was especially venerated in Venice (where explicitly for pairs of cornes and violins in the corne and violin, which were oen seen and Benedeo Rè’s Lilia convallium (track 13), her relics were housed in a church bearing her ecco (perhaps recalling similar echo effects as interchangeable in the instrumental repertoire both of which are wrien for two soprano name unl it was destroyed during the in Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Vespers), and (as evidenced by the familiar rubric violino, voices with violins, in which the corne Napoleonic era). The second soprano part is demonstrates an idiomac understanding of ò corneo). Unl the 1620s the cornests, substutes for the second voice in our here played on the mute corne. each instrument’s character and technical lauded for their ability to imitate the human arrangement. One of the lesser-known capabilies in its soloisc wring. voice, perhaps held the upper hand; but composers on this recording, Rè was maestro Orazio Tardi was a monk in the Camaldolese Marini’s Op.