Accademia Bizantina / Ottavio Dantone VIVALDI Il Tamerlano

IL TAMERLANO

 

Delphine Galou / Accademia Bizantina / Ottavio Dantone VIVALDI Musica Sacra per Alto

Vivaldi, the Venetian, master of the whole palette of human emotions. From the church to the opera house, from tragedy to joy, the immediately-recognisable sensibility, the expressiveness, the inimitable colours and an unbeatable talent to say so much in just a few notes.

The contralto Delphine Galou (who recently won a Gramophone Award, one of the most prestigious awards in the classical music world) and Ottavio Dantone's Accademia Bizantina have created two recitals of sacred music and of opera that illustrate the incomparable richness of Vivaldi’s body of work and establish the emotional connections between the two repertoires.

For the first time, two volumes of the Vivaldi Edition (in this case the 59th and 60th) will be released at the same time, with their synergy also reflected in the albums’ artwork.

The recital ‘Musica sacra’ consists of six works of very diverse themes and styles, symbolising the richness of the religious fervour of Antonio Vivaldi's sacred music.

Delphine Galou / Accademia Bizantina / Ottavio Dantone VIVALDI Arie e Cantate per Contralto

Vivaldi, the Venetian, master of the whole palette of human emotions. From the church to the opera house, from tragedy to joy, the immediately-recognisable sensibility, the expressiveness, the inimitable colours and an unbeatable talent to say so much in just a few notes.

The contralto Delphine Galou (who recently won a Gramophone Award, one of the most prestigious awards in the classical music world) and Ottavio Dantone's Accademia Bizantina have created two recitals of sacred music and of opera that illustrate the incomparable richness of Vivaldi’s body of work and establish the emotional connections between the two repertoires.

For the first time, two volumes of the Vivaldi Edition (in this case the 59th and 60th) will be released at the same time, with their synergy also reflected in the albums’ artwork.

The recital ‘Arie e cantate per opera’ (Opera arias and cantatas) shines a light on and alternates between operatic arias and cantatas, which are related in style and colour.

Delphine Galou / Accademia Bizantina / Ottavio Dantone AGITATA

Delphine Galou is renowned and admired for her musicality and her appealing timbre. She has taken part in many productions of Baroque music and recordings of operas (notably by Vivaldi), but this is her first recital. It is a programme of sacred music, motets, cantatas and excerpts from oratorios, which in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were influenced by the increasingly fashionable genre of opera. From the famous ‘Agitata infido flatu’ from Vivaldi’s oratorio Juditha triumphans, here counterpointed by an aria from another setting of the story of Judith composed by Jommelli, to Stradella’s Lamentations and Porpora’s magnificent motet ‘In procella sine stella’, Delphine Galou covers a wide range of spiritual emotions. She is accompanied by the excellent Accademia Bizantina under its director and harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone. A concerto by Gregori and a sinfonia by Caldara complete this release, which includes several world premiere recordings. 

Viktoria Mullova - Ottavio Dantone BACH Concertos

From the end of the 16th century, musicians and theoreticians perfected a system of codes for expression and composition that contributed to the spread of a shared language. It was common practice to adapt musical scores to the players and instruments available on any given occasion.

Bach’s music lends itself particularly well to such adaptation: his works are so structurally and conceptually perfect that they transcend sound and timbre. Many can be played on any instrument without altering their intrinsic value. Bach was famously wont to reuse his own music in different instrumental or indeed vocal combinations.

Viktoria and I agreed that it would be interesting to focus on the practice of transcription, accompanying two original concertos, BWV 1041 and BWV 1042, with two newly transcribed compositions. We opted for the Concerto BWV 1053, written for harpsichord in E major, but reused by Bach himself in two cantatas, and probably originally intended for oboe d’amore. I immediately thought of transcribing it in D major, not only because the brighter key suits the violin, but also because its astounding central Siciliano features a glorious melody that suits the violin perfectly.

Viktoria and I, having often performed the sonatas for violin and harpsichord, were keen to find a piece we could play with orchestra. One concerto is particularly well suited to this idea, BWV 1060. The original version is for two harpsichords and strings, though Bach first drafted it for two violins, or for violin and oboe. I feel this unprecedented version works very well, enriching the composition with a range of new nuances.

Key here is not only the reality of performance, but also the underlying aesthetic concept: rigour of form and musical language, together with inventive brilliance in performance, were features of the 18th century. Once we understand exactly how and why these expressive forms came about and interacted, the entire period comes magically to life. (Ottavio Dantone)