“Ho registrato questo lavoro tutto di un fiato nel mio studio a casa in un caldo pomeriggio di Maggio durante il lockdown del 2020, non pensavo di farne un disco ma poi riascoltandolo ho sentito una grande energia sprigionarsi da queste canzoni che ho scelto così per caso. Ho voluto mantenere la registrazione del bandoneon così evidentemente separata tra mano destra e mano sinistra perchè vorrei farvi sentire quello che provo quando suono. Quindi consiglio per un miglior effetto l’utilizzo delle cuffie cosìda poter godere a pieno lo stesso mio punto di ascolto durante la mia esecuzione.” Daniele di Bonaventura
Over the years I have heard many recordings of music written for the Imperial court in Vienna. That’s no wonder: Vienna was a centre of music-making in Europe. During the 17th and 18th centuries some of the best musicians and composers were in the service of the Habsburg emperors. Most of the recordings concentrate on music for violins or voice. This disc is different in that it presents music for viol consort. That’s all the more interesting, as it is often thought that in the 17th century consort music was only written in France and England. It is quite surprising that this kind of music was also written in Austria. Most musicians in the service of the Imperial court were from Italy, where the viol consort had gone out of fashion since the first quarter of the 17th century. The fact that Italian composers wrote music for viol consort was due to the personal preferences of the emperors, Ferdinand III and Leopold I, who also wrote some music for this kind of ensemble themselves.
On the transition of renaissance and early baroque this music is a synthesis of the polyphonic instrumental music for 2 (instrumental) choirs as developed in Venice. The symphoniae already have a basso continuo, but are polyphonic composed for 2 choirs. Alberto Rasi, with Academis Strumentale and two other consorts has understood the basis of the music perfectly. His approach is to render the canzonas in accordance with the style of late renaissance instrumental dance music, using contempory instruments.
Brahms’s Trio op.114, originally conceived for clarinet (like the two Sonatas op.120), is presented here in its version with viola: ‘Like all Brahms’s works, this trio is a vocal, melodic piece. And the viola is perhaps the instrument of the string quartet that comes closest to the human voice’, says violist Miguel Da Silva. ‘This version with viola obliges me, as a cellist, to listen differently: our two stringed instruments must “breathe” together and match their articulation’, continues Xavier Phillips. These three works from late in Brahms’s career testify to his modernity: ‘Brahms was often considered a classical composer who was impervious to modernity, the guardian of a certain tradition’, says pianist François-Frédéric Guy, who agrees with Schoenberg that he was, on the contrary, highly innovative: ‘We have a fine example, in the trio, of the extraordinary modernity of his combinations of rhythm and timbre: he is a total innovator.'