Due Enrico

Small size, four gut strings, a short bow were at beginning the ingredients of the magic. Such magic happened in Italy, the cradle of the violin, during the seventeenth century. “Seicento!” is therefore a multifaceted time-travel through the Early Baroque, from Venice to Sicily, exploring the wonders of the first violin virtuosos and their dexterous-passionated playing. A collection of music born looking at Caravaggio, Bernini and Borromini’s masterworks.

The influence of the music by Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) on contemporaneous composers and on those who worked even between the seventeenth and eighteenth century was truly important. For the necessarily synthetic itinerary delineated in this CD I was inspired by four exemplary compositions excerpted from “Fiori Musicali”. This collection was printed in 1635. In it, the composer proposes works conceived for liturgical use (plus two pieces without a precise collocation within the Mass). These pieces are excerpted from the so-called “Messa della Madonna”, and are a Toccata avanti la Messa, Canzon dopo l’Epistola, Recercar dopo il Credo, Toccata per la Levatione.

Alessandro Stradella was one of the most important Italian composers of the seventeenth century. This recording presents the only two cantatas Stradella composed for Christmas, preceded by the instrumental Sonata di Viole, the earliest entirely instrumental works (i.e., unconnected to a vocal source) for the concertino-concerto grosso ensemble in the history of the genre.