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L’Altra Venezia (CD)
€16.53 excl. VAT
World premiere recording of violin and cello sonatas by Albinoni, Bigaglia, Caldara, Gentili, and Reali. Scaramuccia Ensemble.
CD 6 panels digipack (traditional physical CD that you can touch and smell) + 28 pages booklet.
(For the digital album click here)
No shipping costs for Europe (Check other shipping costs here)
You are buying directly from the musicians. Thanks!
Release: 8th June 2023
L’altra Venezia
Two Albinoni sonatas recently discovered by Professor Michael Talbot and the only two extant cello sonatas written by who was the concertmaster of San Marco in Venice are just some of the works that have been recorded for the first time on our latest album. This is a unique recording that brings us to Venice at the beginning of the 18th century. If you think that in those years Venice is just Vivaldi, this album will surprise you.
In 1709, the French François Raguenet wrote about the best violinists in Italy: “in Rome: Corelli and Montanari, in Venice: Giorgetto and Albinoni…”. He was referring to Giorgio Gentili and Tomaso Albinoni. However, the young Vivaldi, who by then was already Maestro di Violino in La Pietà and who would publish his second opus of violin sonatas that year, is not one of the best violinists for our French narrator. Our recording unearths the music of some of the greatest Venetian masters who at the dawn of the 18th century forged the style of the new century, and who are today overshadowed by the great Prete Rosso. This is wonderfully explained by Michael Talbot in the notes that he himself has kindly prepared for our CD:
The centrality of the unusually versatile figure of Vivaldi – who began to move out of the category of ‘Interesting Historical Figure’ into the Pantheon of great composers only about a hundred years ago – to the musical culture of Venice in the first half of the eighteenth century is undisputed. Yet it would be a mistake to regard the many gifted musicians contemporary with him born or active within that city as merely ‘within Vivaldi’s orbit’. Venetian cultural life encouraged plurality, not least because the state and its metropolis were not a dynastic autocracy with a single courtly hub but a republic in which political power and cultural orientation were widely dispersed. This encouraged a climate of innovation and experimentation, which were nourished by Venice’s exceptionally wide international connections through commerce and – the term is not anachronistic – tourism
Prof. Michael Talbot (L´Altra Venezia, notes)
The Programme
Diogenio Bigaglia. “Dresden” Sonata No. 2 in C major, Venezia, ca. 1716
Antonio Caldara. Sonata for violin and continuo in F major, E.M. 28
Tomaso Albinoni. Sonata for violin and continuo in B flat major, E.M. 65l, ca. 1710
Giorgio Gentili. Sonata for violoncello and continuo in A major, CORRER Busta 128.108
Giorgio Gentili. Capricci da camera a violino e violoncello o cimbalo, Op. 3, Venezia 1707 Capriccio Undezimo [in B minor]
Giorgio Gentili. Sonata for violoncello and continuo in G major, CORRER Busta 128.109
Tomaso Albinoni. Sonata for violin and continuo in G minor, E.M. 65f, ca. 1700
Giovanni Battista Reali. Sonate da camera a violino e basso, Op. 2, Venezia, 1712. Sonata Settima [in B flat major]
The Sound
The recordings on this CD were made with a proprietary microphone technique, called ECA, that was developed by our sound engineer in order to achieve maximum sound fidelity, with very good positioning of the instruments in the virtual space that is being created between your speakers. The mixing and mastering process has been performed with an almost fully analog equipment chain in order to maintain the complex tonal character of the sound of gut strings and the harpsichord. This results in a musical vividness and three-dimensional sound that is rarely heard in acoustic music recordings.
Scores
Fine editions of the music contained in this CD:
Gentili – Two sonatas for violoncello and basso continuo (preface, score and parts in PDF)
Listen
Reviews
“Sensibilità e finezza di gusto non meno che inventiva e ricchezza di intenzioni interpretative, sostanziate da un ammirevole nitore del segno strumentale, caratterizzano questo nuovo album di Scaramuccia dove ci si occupa di una Venezia altra”
Cesare Fertonani, MusicPaper
“Scaramuccia differentiates the playing so much that it definitely conveys feelings, feelings of joy as well as feelings of sadness or deep melancholy.
At the same time, the purely instrumental and the compositional, the concern for tonal balance and the greatest possible transparency, as well as the dance-like, do not fall by the wayside. The musicians employ such an arsenal of colors and nuances of all kinds that one can only rejoice in this variety. And yet nothing seems to be sought or done in this gesture to dazzle: One feels only the sincere love that the musicians bring to the material.”
Remy Franck, Pizzicato
“Gentili must be one of the first composers in Venice to write music for it. These are very fine pieces, and valuable additions to the repertoire. It is nice that Inés Salinas, whom I know as an excellent basso continuo player, has the chance to show her skills in a solo role. And how well she plays these two sonatas. The second allegro of the Sonata in A is one of the highlights of this disc.”
“The combination of music of high quality and outstanding performances, and the fact that we have here largely unfamiliar repertoire, justifies a special recommendation. This disc, accompanied by a booklet with informative liner-notes by Michael Talbot and a list of sources, will undoubtedly be a strong contender for my list of recordings of the year.”
Johan van Veen, musica Dei donum
This wonderfully presented recording takes us back to the famous musical city at the very turn of the 18th century, before it became synonymous with just a single composer’s works […] the perfect phrasing and understanding of the stylistic elements on display makes for an informed and beautifully balanced approach to these incipient contributions by “significant” others in this “other” Venice.
David Belliger, Early Music Review
“Originele muziek, onbekend, maar niet tweederangs, uitstekend uitgevoerd”
“Het Venetië van die dagen was een internationaal brandpunt van culturen, waarin innovatie en experiment met nieuwe vormen alleszins gebruikelijk was. Getuige de fraaie, gelukkig nu herontdekte werken op de CD van Scaramuccia.”
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