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Siete qui: Home Festival Festival 2012 Divine harmony... in baroque mode
Divine harmony... in baroque mode PDF Print E-mail
Giovanni Lorenzo Gregori’s Concerto in D major op. II no. 2 is part of the corpus of ten Concerti grossi a più strumenti, 2 violini concertati, con i ripieni, se piace, alto viola, arcileuto, o violoncello, con il basso per l’organo op. 2, dated Lucca 1698. This is an important date, because it is the first composition that uses the term Concerti grossi in its printed title. This evening’s piece is short but we can still enjoy its well-rounded beauty, and the fast solo parts echoing the group solutions. Small but by no means stunted, its linear brevity is complete – a miniature gem of strikingly imaginative perfection.
Georg Friedrich Händel’s Cantata Arresta il Passo (more widely known as Aminta and Fillide) originating in the Accademia degli Arcadi literary society, offers a fine example of Italian vocal plasticity. Against an idyllic pastoral background with shepherds and nymphs, we have the elegant, flowing aria Fiamma Bella, the broody but serene Se vago rio, with its dancing Sicilian rhythm against an ethereal pizzicato motif on the strings, and the poetic Al dispetto di sorte crudele.
Another piece by Händel is the Concerto per organo “Il cucù e l’usignolo”. Its spectacular “natural” musical beauties include echoes, cascades of sound, resonances, and chiaroscuri effects, so this is music “to be seen”. It reverberates with original alliterations of the sounds of an imaginary forest resonating with the virtuoso songs of the cuckoo and nightingale.
The marvels of Giuseppe Sammartini’s compositions echo in the words of the historian Charles Burney: “Full of science, originality, and fire”. His Concerto in G major for organ and strings op. 9 no. 3 is a lively example, starting with Spiritoso, a dancing page in the French style; then comes the Andante, with rich harmonic colour, the organ holding its own in dense counterpoint. A brilliant Allegro closes the piece, its robust subject entwined in vivid figurations and typically baroque sound-play.
Then we can admire another Sammartini, the genial composer Giovan Battista, in the Symphony in G major, where his energy gusts through, sheathing all feeling with moving pathos.
Completing the evening’s program, Nulla in mundo pax sincera, by Antonio Vivaldi, is an exquisite little gem showing off the “Red priest’s” melodic talents to their best. This motet has a particular sweetness, despite a vaguely gloomy feeling, making it lovely and very intense. This beautiful aria was used for the sound track of the moving sequences at the end of the film Shine.