Voces Suaves / Concerto Scirocco STEFANO BERNARDI Lux Æterna - Ein Salzburger Requiem

After rediscovering the music of Giovanni Croce, maestro di cappella at St Mark’s cathedral in Venice, Ensembles Voces Suaves & Concerto Scirocco take us to Salzburg and put the spotlight on the Verona-born composer Stefano Bernardi, a contemporary of Monteverdi. Bernardi reached the peak of his career in Salzburg, when he was appointed the first Kapellmeister of its newly constructed cathedral, a position he held from 1628 to 1634.

Bernardi contributed greatly to the integration of the Italian nuovo stile in Salzburg, especially of features such as polychorality and the stile concertato, and may therefore be seen as the musical forefather of later, more famous Salzburg musicians. The outstanding stature of his music is clearly evident from his majestic Requiem, the manuscript of which is still preserved in the Salzburg cathedral archives. Particularly impressive is the Sequentia, which forms the core of the work and opens with an elaborate Dies irae section, based on the famous chant melody. The Requiem, as well as a number of Motets by Bernardi, is recorded here for the very first time.

Voces Suaves / Jörg-Andreas Bötticher COME TO MY GARDEN, MY SISTER, MY BELOVED

Voces Suaves, which performs Renaissance and Baroque music with solo voices, is a vocal en- semble based in Basel (Switzerland). Taking into account the insights of historical performance practice, the ensemble strives for captivating rhetoric combined with a warm and full overall sound that makes the music come alive with emotion. By virtue of the intensive collaboration, a great familiarity within the musical work has evolved. 

The ensemble, founded in 2012 by Tobias Wicky, is made up of a core of eight professional singers of whom most have a connection with the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. The ensemble’s character has been shaped together with Francesco Saverio Pedrini, who directed it until 2016. Since then it works without a permanent director, but maintains frequent collaborations with Jörg-Andreas Bötticher and Johannes Strobl. 

The repertoire contains a broad selection of Italian madrigals, works of the Early German Baroque, and larger-scaled Italian oratorios and Masses. In planning the programs, care is taken to include works by forgotten composers, such as Lodovico Agostini or Giovanni Croce, alongside those of well-known masters like Monteverdi or Schütz. 

Voces Suaves regularly joins together with other ensembles in order to perform larger-scale works. Since 2015 various recordings have been released and have been honored with interna- tional prizes (including the Diapason découverte).