Three from Acis Productions

Program: #24-26   Air Date: Jun 24, 2024

For complete information on this label:

www.acisproductions.com

Michelangelo Galilei: Suites for Lute (Richard Kolb, lute) Acis  APL20415.

The first American recording of Michelangelo Galilei’s lute music in over thirty years, RICHARD KOLB’s new album captures beautiful performances notable for the lyrical quality of the baroque compositions which make the plucked instrument ‘sing’, and the sumptuous audio engineering by producer RYAN EDWARDS, who faithfully captured the sessions in a beautiful rural wooden church in up-state New York. Younger brother to Galileo Galilei, the famous astronomer, physicist and engineer, Michelangelo Galilei also achieved greatness in his time. One of the most sought-after lutenists in Europe, his compositions for lute blended diverse influences of Renaissance practice with the baroque avant-garde of Florence and cosmopolitan flavors of German and Polish royal courts. This album showcases his confident and distinctive style, which he published in his first and only surviving book, Il primo libro d’intavolatura di liuto (1650)—fifty-two pieces presented in the manner of suites, an innovation for the time.

This new album follows Kolb’s lauded work on Vago Desio (“splendid and authoritative” Gramophone) where he accompanied soprano Elissa Edwards in works from Barbara Strozzi’s Opus 8, (Acis, 2020). Label founder and owner, GRAMMY®-nominated producer, GEOFFREY SILVER, says, “Having enjoyed his beautiful playing in Vago Desio, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to publish this remarkable collection of sublime and evocative music that was written during transitional moments of musical style and modernity. Richard is a consummate artist with a rich sound and a passion for sustaining vocal line within counterpoint, and Ryan Edwards has done a marvelous job of utilizing the warmth of the old wooden church space in his engineering. It’s like the building is also singing. I have every confidence in these being recognized as benchmark performances of our time.”

Richard Kolb performs extensively in North America and Europe, both as a soloist and as a continuo player with a wide range of baroque and renaissance ensembles. His recordings include albums of music from Robert Ballard’s Premier Livre de Luth (Centaur, 2020), and Vago Desio, (Acis, 2020). Since completing a Ph.D. in musicology at Case-Western Reserve University in 2010, Kolb has combined performance with scholarly projects, including the first complete edition of the works of Barbara Strozzi, published in eight volumes by Cor Donato Editions (2014–19). His edition of Francesca Caccini’s Primo libro delle musiche is scheduled for completion in 2024. Kolb currently directs and serves as Scholar-in-Residence for the New York Continuo Collective, and has taught at the University of Toronto, the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto, Canada), Cleveland State University, and Case-Western Reserve University.

Monteverdi: The “Lost” Vespers (the Thirteen/Matthew Robertson). Acis  APL54148.

Building on their success with last year’s highly acclaimed Vespers of 1610, THE THIRTEEN, one of the finest chamber ensembles of its kind―“transfigures the listener,” (The Washington Post) “Exquisite in every way” (Gramophone)―releases another album of Monteverdi: THE ‘LOST’ VESPERS. Far from being a new discovery of a unified work that has been lost to the passage of time, THE ‘LOST’ VESPERS is a curated compilation of Monteverdi’ work that has been hiding in plain sight for the last 350 years. Drawing from Monteverdi’s end-of-life volumes Selva morale and Missa et salmi, the album closely follows the structure of a vespers, alternating between celebration and reflection, light and darkness. What emerges is a glorious presentation, performed by virtuosic masters of Monteverdi’s style.

This is the culmination of a four year exploration of Monteverdi’s sacred choral works by THE THIRTEEN, a choir of soloists. Artistic Director and founder, MATTHEW ROBERTSON says, “It has been a glorious journey of discovery. I thank my colleagues for their endlessly inventive music-making and kind hearts. I’m honored to make music with them and greatly enjoyed recording this ‘Lost’ Vespers so that we can share the fruits of our labors.” The album features virtuosic playing by historical violins and cornetti, accompanied by theorbo, cello, and chamber organ. Recorded in the sumptuous acoustics of the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America, this album is a glorious portrait of the pageantry and magnificence of the Venetian Republic at the sunset of its powers.

III. Georg Muffat: Apparatus Musico-Organisticus (Kola Olowabi, o.) Acis  APL34818.

New Album from Kola Owolabi drops today and features monolithic work of the South German baroque, and the double debut of two new North American pipe organs at Christ Church Cathedral, Cincinnati.

Unlike the works of J.S. Bach (1685–1750) and Buxtehude (c. 1637–1707) which epitomize the Central and Northern German schools of organ composition, the music of the South German baroque is less well-known, and less frequently performed or recorded.  

The composer whose magnum opus features on both volumes of this new album is GEORG MUFFAT, a contemporary of Buxtehude.  According to OWOLABI, “Muffat’s blending of Italian, French and German musical styles… creates a different sound world than other baroque composers interested in such stylistic synthesis, such as Handel and Bach.”  The result is an exciting reflection of Muffat’s upbringing at the crossroads of four modern European Nations: France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany–borderlands and trade routes that shaped his experience and his voice. The music often demonstrates an “exuberantly festive tone,” and features the Italian style of Frescobaldi, Pasquini, and Corelli–French overture styles and fugues are ever present–and in addition, the stylus phantasticus and sophisticated counterpoint of Northern Germany makes its mark. Apparatus musico-organisticus, is one of the most significant 17th-century examples of the South German baroque and is rarely recorded, and this is the first time it has been performed on two North American instruments, and in the same building.

The necessity of two organs to present this work is explained best by the music itself: there are 12 Toccatas, eight in the eight church modes that work in meantone, and 4 that explore the keys of E minor, D-mixolydian, C minor and B♭ major, which only sound in tune on a “well-tempered” instrument. After visiting Cincinnati on a field trip with his students, OWOLABI, “became smitten” with the idea “of recording the pieces in this collection” on the two new Cathedral instruments: the newly built Italian baroque style organ by C. B. Fisk, Opus 148 (two manuals, 22 ranks, modified meantone) in the Centennial Chapel, and the Richards, Fowkes & Co., Opus 24, 2020 (three manuals, 60 ranks, well-tempered).  OWOLABI observed, “I’ve followed the path of several artists like Martin Haselböck of recording this collection on two different instruments. However, this is the first instance where both instruments are in the same building. As far as I know, it is the only recording of Muffat’s complete collection that is recorded on North American instruments.”

The recording was engineered by Acis’ lead engineer, Kevin Bourassa, and produced by harpsichordist and baroque expert, Joseph Gascho.

GEORGE MUFFAT: Born in Savoy, where modern-day France, Switzerland, and Italy meet, Muffat received his foundational musical training from the age of 10 at the Court of King Louis XIV. At the age of 16, he continued his studies with the Jesuits in Selestat, a town 12 miles west of the Rhine and the present border with Germany, and 50 miles north of Basel. 

Following the Thirty Years War, political instability forced Muffat to seek his fortune beyond Alsace–first in Vienna, and then Prague.  Ultimately he settled in Salzburg in 1678 as cathedral organist and chamber musician at the court of the Prince-Archbishop, who later granted him permission to study in Rome with Bernardo Pasquini (1637–1710) and where he attended performances by Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713). After being passed over for promotion in favor of his colleague Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644–1704), Muffat again attempted to gain a position at the Viennese Court, presenting his Apparatus musico-organisticus, the work featured on this album, to the new Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph I, at his coronation in 1690.