Composer: Girolamo Frescobaldi
Performer: Fabio Bonizzoni
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Glossa
Catalogue: GCD921514
Release: 2012
Size: 876 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
CD 01
Toccate e partite d’intavolatura di cimbalo et organo, Book 1
01. Toccata prima
02. Toccata seconda
03. Toccata terza
04. Toccata quarta
05. Toccata quinta
06. Toccata sesta
07. Partita sopra l’aria di Monicha
08. Partite sopra l’aria della Romanesca
09. Partita sopra l’aria di Ruggiero
10. Toccata settima
11. Toccata ottava
12. Toccata nona
13. Toccata decima
Toccate, canzone, versi d’hinni, Magnificat, gagliarde, correnti, Book 2
14. Aria detto Balletto
CD 02
Toccate, canzone, versi d’hinni, Magnificat, gagliarde, correnti, Book 2
01. Toccata prima
02. Toccata seconda
03. Toccata settima
04. Toccata nona, “Non senza fatiga si giunge al fine”
05. Toccata decima
06. Toccata undecima
07. Toccata terza, “per l’organo da sonarsi alla levatione”
08. Toccata quarta, “per l’organo da sonarsi alla levatione”
09. Toccata quinta, “sopra i pedali per l’organo e senza”
10. Toccata sesta, “sopra i pedali per l’organo e senza”
11. Toccata ottava, “di durezze e ligature”
12. Canzona quinta
Toccate e partite d’intavolatura di cimbalo et organo, Book 1
13. Toccata undecima
Toccate, canzone, versi d’hinni, Magnificat, gagliarde, correnti, Book 2
14. Canzona prima
15. Canzona terza
16. Aria detta la Frescobalda
17. Ancidetemi pur
For as much as Fabio Bonizzoni is drawn to the splendours of Baroque music for voices and orchestra – as demonstrated through his award-winning recordings with La Risonanza – his keyboard-playing instincts are constantly urging him to tackle masterpieces of the keyboard repertory. Most recently having applied his musical insight and virtuosity to Bach’s ‘Die Kunst der Fuge’, Bonizzoni now pits himself against another, albeit earlier, Baroque master in Girolamo Frescobaldi.
Frequently-cited as being as important for keyboard music as Monteverdi was for vocal and dramatic fare, the genius of the Ferrara-born Frescobaldi was amply recognised when working in Rome and Florence – periods when he published (and revised) the two books of toccatas (but including canzonas and partitas or variations sets) recorded by Bonizzoni here. Frescobaldi’s toccatas allow for, and draw from Bonizzoni, great interpretative flexibility, calling for rhythmic freedom, not to say drama and emotion. Indeed, Bonizzoni, clearly mindful of the new demands of the seconda prattica in Frescobaldi’s time, likens the toccatas to being madrigals without words: poetry lies at the heart of his performances.
This new recording from Glossa has Bonizzoni playing on a splendid modern copy of an Italian Baroque harpsichord and on the idiosyncratic organ of the Basilica of Santa Barbara in Mantua. Along the way, Bonizzoni has puzzled out, and describes in the booklet, how best to draw out the sound appropriate for Frescobaldi’s music from this mysterious instrument.