Lina Tur Bonet & Musica Alchemica Antonio Vivald

In this recording entitled Enigma Fortuna, the ensemble La Fonte Musica, directed by Michele Pasotti, aims to shed light on the mysterious and eccentric personality of Antonio Zacara da Teramo (1355-1416). A contemporary of Boccaccio, Donatello and Brunelleschi, this composer from the Abruzzi region could almost be likened to a sort of musical Hieronymus Bosch, for the texts he set to music conjure up a ‘topsy-turvy universe’ where the obscene, the imaginary and the grotesque go hand in hand. In his ballata Amor ne tossa he writes ‘Let him understand me who can, for I understand myself’, foreshadowing the proud egotism of the Romantic artists who were to come 400 years after him. With this four-CD set presenting the world premiere of Zacara’s complete works, La Fonte Musica offers us an initial approach to understanding his music. And thereby, through the timeless character of art, to understanding a so-called ‘renascent’ era that seems as ‘topsy-turvy’ as our own.

Attilio Ariosti was a particularly versatile Italian composer, musician and poet, known throughout Europe. As an operatic composer his name was joined in London by those of Handel and Bononcini, and his 'Carillano' of 1723 and 'Vespasiano' of 1724 were much acclaimed. The cycle of Six Cantatas 'The Flowering and Fading of Love', only recently discovered and here receiving its first recording, forms a sonnet sequence about the journey of love, ranging from 'La Rosa' (the Rose) to 'Il Naufragio' (The Shipwreck) and the final 'La Gelosia' (Jealousy).

Antonio de Cabezón, “The Spanish Bach”, was among the most important composers of his time and the first major Iberian keyboard composer. Blind from childhood he was a musician at the court of Charles the V since 1526. HR Recordings is proud to present the complete recording of his keyboard music in several volumes performed by Javier Jiménez at some of the most beautiful Spanish historical organs. Here we present Volume 2, including the famous “Diferencias sobre las Vacas”.

The Cello Concerto no.1 was Villa-Lobos’s first major orchestral work. Filled with youthful energy and displaying an eclectic style, it is the sound of the composer finding his voice. Three decades later and with his reputation at its height, the inspired melodies and flowing style of the Fantasia sees Villa-Lobos giving free rein to his vivid imagination. Composed for the Brazilian cellist Aldo Parisot, the no less inventive and lushly scored Cello Concerto no.2 from 1953 suggests man’s solitude when facing the vastness of nature.

In this recording entitled Enigma Fortuna, the ensemble La Fonte Musica, directed by Michele Pasotti, aims to shed light on the mysterious and eccentric personality of Antonio Zacara da Teramo (1355-1416). A contemporary of Boccaccio, Donatello and Brunelleschi, this composer from the Abruzzi region could almost be likened to a sort of musical Hieronymus Bosch, for the texts he set to music conjure up a ‘topsy-turvy universe’ where the obscene, the imaginary and the grotesque go hand in hand. In his ballata Amor ne tossa he writes ‘Let him understand me who can, for I understand myself’, foreshadowing the proud egotism of the Romantic artists who were to come 400 years after him. With this four-CD set presenting the world premiere of Zacara’s complete works, La Fonte Musica offers us an initial approach to understanding his music. And thereby, through the timeless character of art, to understanding a so-called ‘renascent’ era that seems as ‘topsy-turvy’ as our own.