Amorosa Fenice (Giulio San Pietro de’ Negri)
(Amorous Phoenix)
Released in Autumn 2014 on the agOgique label: Amorosa Fenice, a CD dedicated to the rediscovery of the work of Giulio San Pietro de' Negri.
Of all the fascinating but nearly forgotten figures who populated the world of Italian monody in the first half of the 17th century, Giulio San Pietro de' Negri is probably one of the most interesting. He published at least 11 volumes of profane and sacred vocal music between 1605 and 1620. This corpus includes a good number of astonishingly original pieces, even in the context of the rather experimental standards of the era.
Certainly, Giulio San Pietro de' Negri is one of those – like composer and theorbo player Bellerofonte Castaldi – who must have appreciated the benevolent shadow of Claudio Monteverdi, of whose music de' Negri's is reminiscent. De' Negri was capricious, curious, open to novelty, and above all free to wander in his singular way in the New World of sound discovered by the Venetian master.
The journey of our composer parallels that of his more known contemporaries such as the patrician Sigimondo d'India from Palermo and the noble Claudio Saracini of Siena. These musicians from aristocratic families, not restrained by either professional status or conventional rules of composition, invented some profoundly original ways of writing music. It is this voyage far from beaten paths that Faenza's recording invites us to follow.
Performers:
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Marco Horvat: direction, vocals, theorbo, Baroque guitar, lira da gamba
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Olga Pitarch: soprano
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Brigitte Vinson: mezzo-soprano
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Jeffrey Thompson: tenor
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Emmanuel Vistorky: bass
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Magali Imbert: recorders, tambourine
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Pierre Hamon: recorders
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Christine Plubeau: treble and bass viols
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Charles-Édouard Fantin: lute, theorbo, Baroque guitar
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Matthieu Boutineau: harpsichord, clavicytherium, lautenwerk
« Very quickly one is struck by the inventive richness of this largely unknown composer, which makes him the equal of the greatest amid his contemporaries. Most of the selected airs are taken from the two known volumes of Grazie ed affetti (1613-14). In all this music there is something vernal, lively, and bounding with energy. Even when these airs do not exude joy, the vibrancy is still present. The diversity in the association of voices and instruments assures a constant variety from one track to another of this disc; each new listening is a source of delight. »
Laurent Bury, Music-opera.com, October 6, 2014
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