Comim, Flavio

Duarte’s Partita was completed in 1974. It’s a substantial work in four movements, using all original material. As in the Variations on a Theme of Štěpán Rak he adopts a four-note motif, which may be heard forwards, backwards, inverted and stretched. Variations on an Italian Folk Song Op.139 was written in 2000. It draws on the second movement, “Canzona”, of Duarte’s prior Suite piemontese, which was based on a combination of two tunes: Il testamento dell’avvelenato and Re Gilardin.

Following the premiere of Brescianello’s Tisbe, Johann David Heinichen’s Flavio Crispo is now the second discovery of a never-performed Baroque opera in an interpretation by Il Gusto Barocco. This Italian opera by Heinichen, one of the most valuable documents of its times in matters of compositional history, had been forgotten for some three hundred years until the ensemble premiered it in 2016. The historical circumstances behind this opera are very special: a quarrel involving the two world-famous castrati Senesino and Berselli caused a scandal that prevented the premiere of Heinichen’s opera at the Dresden court. Some anecdotes relate that the singers accused the composer of imperfect knowledge of Italian and tore the score to shreds during the rehearsal process while he looked on. Others state that Handel had wooed away the Dresden singers during a journey from Italy to London. The score is a masterpiece.