10.16.2007

New Release October 2007: «SERENISSIME SONATE»

Music for strings in the Republic of Venice from 1630 to 1660

In July 1630 the plague had reached Venice from Mantua in the southwest. It claimed 700,000 victims in the entire Republic, and 46,500 alone in Venice, who died before the next summer. The plague also claimed the lives of outstanding musicians such as the violinist Giovanni Fontana of Brescia, "a virtuoso whom the voracious plague transported from the earth to the heavens," and the celebrated Alessandro Grandi, who at the chapel of San Marco was second only to Monteverdi. The city began to build its "vow" in order to banish this divine punishment. In November 1631, Monteverdi's music was played and all the surviving citizens gathered at St. Mark's Cathedral. "Zephir returns and with it, great times" is sung by the two tenors in Monteverdi's famous Ciaccona, which was printed in Venice in 1632. The musical renaissance of the city begins.The construction of public, commercial music theaters (the term "opera house" did not yet exist) turned out to be a winning idea that quickly made its way not only through the entire city, but also throughout Europe as a prime export of Venice. The Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca present on this diligently recorded CD the following works by composers such as Giovanni G. Arrigoni, Tarquinio Merula, Francesco Cavalli, Marco A. Ferro, Martin Pesenti and Massimiliano Neri.

First assembled in Treviso (a city in the Veneto region known during the Renaissance as “Marca Gioiosa”), the Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca have become one of the most famous groups in Italy, a complex that for almost twenty years has been playing ancient music on period instruments. A string ensemble that can be expanded into a small orchestra, the Sonatori feature a repertoire that ranges from the late 16th century to Classicism, with particular dedication to traditional music of the Veneto.