Composer: Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, Nicolo Corradini, fra Archangelo Crotti, Ignazio Donati, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Alessandro Grandi, Johannes Hieronymous Kapsberger, Tarquinio Merula, Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Giovanni Picchi, Alessandro Piccinini,Benedetto Re, Michelangelo Rossi
Performer: Steven Devine, Gonzaga Band
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Catalogue: CHAN0761
Release: 2009
Size: 252 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Corradini: Spargite flores
02. Monteverdi: Venite, sitientes ad aquas
03. Palestrina: Pulchra es amica
04. Grandi: Jesu, mi dulcissime
Rossi: Toccate & Corenti
05. Partite sopra la Romanesca
Merula: Motetti e sonate concertati, Book 1, Op. 6
06. Nigra sum
Piccinini: Intavolatura di Liuto, et di Chitarrone, Book 1
07. Toccata No. 12
08. Donati: O gloriosa Domina
09. Bovicelli: Angelus ad pastores
10. Frescobaldi: Canzona: La Bernardina
11. Picchi: Toccata
12. Re: Tulerunt Dominum
13. Frescobaldi: Canzona, “La Capriola”
Kapsberger: Libro D’Intavolatura di Lauto
14. Toccata No. 7
15. Crotti: Congratulamini
Frescobaldi: Il secondo libro di toccate, canzone, versi d’hinni, Magnificat, gagliarde, correnti
16. Toccata No. 1
17. Merula: Gaudeamus omnes
The Gonzaga Band was formed by cornettist Jamie Savan in 1997, in order to explore historical approaches to the performance of vocal and instrumental music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Its line-up is flexible: the musicians heard on this recording – Steven Devine, Richard Sweeney and Faye Newton besides Jamie Savan himself – form the nucleus of the group, which expands on occasion to include other leading vocal and period-instrument specialists according to the specific requirements of each programme. Jamie Savan commented on the recording, ‘Catherine Bott once described our blend of cornett and voice as that of “two soprano instruments” matched “in dazzling duet”. We hope our recording will live up to this high praise.’
The ensemble takes its name from the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua, who were powerful and influential patrons of the arts in the late Renaissance period. The Gonzaga family employed Claudio Monteverdi as their maestro di cappella, and he presided over a musical establishment that was, for a time, the envy of the world.
For this collection The Gonzaga Band has chosen some of the most beautiful music from the dawn of the baroque era in Italy. Some of the composers, such as Monteverdi, Frescobaldi, Merula and Grandi, are well known today. Others, such as Nicolò Corradini, Benedetto Re and Archangelo Crotti, are minor masters whose music has been unjustly forgotten.
All the composers represented on this disc share a gift for writing accessible, tuneful music for solo voice with obbligato instruments. The challenge is for the instrumentalist to play as vocally as possible, whilst the singer needs an instrumentalist’s technique to negotiate the virtuosic demands of this repertoire. The Gonzaga Band successfully meets this challenge in Sacred Garland.