Featuring: soprano, cornett, two sackbuts, dulcian, organ
This concert program illustrates many of the principal artistic interests of the ensemble Concerto Scirocco. Seventeenth-century German and Italian music, with its stylistic exchanges and engaging interest for the instruments, offers a perfect repertoire for our ensemble of winds, voice and organ.The influence of vocal music on the development of instrumental repertoire is evident throughout this era; examples include Samuel Scheidt’s instrumental canzoni based on popular songs.The collection of vocal and instrumental works by Giovanni Paolo Cima entitled Concerti Ecclesiastici, and Schütz’s Sacrae Symphoniae, in which the composer masterfully combines obbligato instruments with the voice, offer further examples of the close alliance between vocal and instrumental styles. The importance of text to the phrasing, articulation, structure and expression of a piece is central to the musical approach of the ensemble members, whether the text is actually present in the piece or not, in accordance with the teachings of Ganassi and other sixteenth- and seventeenth-century theorists. La Fontenegra and similar treatises also inform our aim to achieve a colourful and expressive mélange of the voice and the instruments. By these means, and by playing from facsimiles of original manuscripts whenever possible, we hope to recreate (as closely as can realistically be achieved) the sound world with which seventeenth-century musicians and audiences would have been familiar.In addition to the relationship between voice and instrument, the musical exchange between different areas of Europe is another important theme. Much of the repertoire of the 16th and 17th centuries (the Golden Age of music for our instruments) illustrates the circulation of ideas and styles, particularly the transalpine communication between Italy and germanic countries. Indeed, Schütz himself travelled to Venice in 1609 to study with Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi. In this incomparable musical centre, he developed his knowledge of the concertato and polychoral compositional styles, which he then took back to his native country and passed on to his pupils and other composers. In presenting this programme of music by Schütz and his contemporaries, we aim to explore the common elements that emerged from these two seemingly contrasting schools.
Adriano Banchieri (1568-1634) Sonata a cinque “La Pomponazza”
Heinrich Schütz (1585 –1672) Wohl dem, der nicht wandelt im Rat der Gottlosen da “Psalmen Davids,” Psalm 1 SWV 290
Bartolomeo Selma (ca. 1595 – ca. 1638) Canzon a doi tenori da “Canzoni, fantasie e correnti”
Heinrich Schütz Ich will den Herren loben allezeit da “Kleine Geistliche Konzerte”SWV 306
Bartolomeo Selma Canzon a doi, basso et soprano da “Canzoni, fantasie e correnti”
Heinrich Schütz Invenerunt me custodes civitatis da “Symphoniae Sacrae” SWV 273
Samuel Scheidt (1587 –1654) Canzona a cinque “es-ce mars”
Giovanni Paolo Cima (1570-1630) Gaudeamus omnes in Domino da “Concerti Ecclesiastici”
Andrea Gabrieli (1510 ca –1586) Canzone alla francese detta frais et gaillard
Daniel Speer (1636 – 1707) Sonata I a due bassi
Johann Vierdanck (ca. 1605 – 1646) Sonata n. 27 a quattro
Heinrich Schütz Domine labia mea aperies da “Symphoniae Sacrae I” SWV 271
Photo @Susanna Drescher
CONCERTO SCIROCCO 