Cusp of the New: La Fenice at Utrecht

Program: #04-46   Air Date: Nov 08, 2004

Preservation of this program is made possible by a generous grant from Sandy Lerner.

One of the themes was dedicated to times of musical turmoil, and many ensembles looked at the cusp of the Baroque era, including the ensemble La Fenice conducted by Jean Tubery, who described the program:

"De ‘Concerti delle Dame’ originated in Ferrara at the end of the 16th century and spread quickly throughout Italy, bringing together the most renowned female singers of the period. The inheritors of the madrigal style, Monteverdi included, gave themselves entirely over to the suave harmonies of these duos for two voices and basso continuo, using them for music designated for both sacred and secular ends. A faithful mirror of vocal performance practice, instrumental music hurried to follow this new path. A considerable repertory of music for two soprano instruments was thus created, for which the cornetto was frequently specified, this being the instrument praised as the most apt of all in the imitation of the human voice. The other favored instrument was the violin. It was during the 16th century that instrumentalists began to create a performance practice that grew steadily more complex. The arrival of new stylistic principles and the new recitar cantando in particular urged their ambitions even higher. This art of ornamentation of song was for them a sort of new artistic life. It is clear that instrumentalists benefited from the singers’ examples, having played colla parte with them all the time, and that they had learnt to ‘talk’ with their instruments. Even though the instrumentalists lacked text, they themselves could now declaim, sing and carry out a dialogue. The music on this programme is devoted to instrumentalists and composers who were part of Monteverdi’s circle at St. Mark’s in Venice. The grand master himself hardly composed any purely instrumental pieces, apart from the Sonata sopra Sancta Maria in the Vespers and some ritornelli and sinfonias in his stage music, yet his players were probably perfectly capable themselves of creating the appropriate pieces for the services. Among these instrumental geniuses is Dario Castello, who wrote the first piece of this concert."

The program is supported in part by Radio Nederland and the
Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Dialoghi Venetiani

Composer Info

Dario Castello, Biaggio Marini 1587-1663, Marco Uccellini 1603-1680, Francesco Rognoni ?-ca.1626, Giovanni Picchi active 1600-1625, Giovanni Battista Bovicelli active 1592-4, Alessandro Piccinini 1566-1638, Maurizio Cazzati 1620-1677, Giovanni Antonio Bertoli 1598-na 1645, Francesco Cavalli 1601-1676, Andrea Gabrieli 1532-1585, Tarquinio Merula 1594-1665,