CONVERSATIONS GALANTES ET AMUS

ARMONIOSOI CONCERTI

Classical Music

Classical Music

Although Lanzetti remained unknown until the beginning of the 1980s, in his lifetime he was regarded as a brilliant cellist. Yet his virtuosity on the instrument never equaled his fame, which was eclipsed by the popularity of another great 18th century Napolian cellist, Franceschiello. In any case, the skills of Lanzetti as a cellist were inimitable. He was born in Naples in 1709, and studied at the Conservatorio di Santa Maria di Loreto, the most renowned school for cellists in the eighteenth century, where he received lessons from the greatest cellists of the Neapolitan school. He later moved to Torino, where he became cellist of the Court Theatre, and a member of the Capella Reale. During his lifetime, Lanzetti toured Europe several times. His compositions are exclusively for the cello. He wrote three collections of sonatas for cello and figured bass, a method, some transcriptions, and several sonatas which have been preserved only in manuscripts. Even his early works require a surprisingly high technical ability for his time, and they become even more demanding in his later compositions. Performing these works is cellist Alix Verzier, keyboardist Bertrand Cuiller, and cellist Emmanuel Balssa.

This new release is a celebration of the so-called “Hispanic” year, 2015, the 400th anniversary of the birth of Saint Teresa of Jesus. The Boys Choir of the Escolanila del Escorial has chosen to celebrate enthusiastically with the interpretation of songs from different regions of Spain and countries of South America. They have also included several works from other European countries, most of which are traditional folk songs with choral arrangements. King Philip II announced in 1567 that the Monastery of the Escorial would also house a seminary for boys. The role of this seminary and its choir was to provide song for the liturgical ceremonies and celebrations of the Royal Monastery. Today, the choir has approximately 45 boarding members between the ages of nine and seventeen, hailing from various regions of Spain. The group sings in all events that take place in the Basilica of The Royal Monastery.

Classical Music

The seventeenth century was a very dark century for the peninsular kingdoms. Famine, epidemics, and all kinds of miseries seized upon a diminishing and very fragmented population. In spite of the continuous social economical and epistemological crisis and of the imposition of an ideology of domination, Spanish culture had flashes of brilliance. And music was a very important part of that culture, particularly vocal music. It was a vehicle of expression for restrained passions, a music that, at times, sang to disillusionment and deception of the senses, just like the tono that lends its title to this recording. The Tonos selected for this recording coincide with this period, in which theatre performances enjoyed a new boost. While only five tonos can be traced back directly to theatrical sources, the relationship that the rest have with stage performances is quite clear. The sources from which these tonos have been retrieved reflect, in any case, a moment in which music had ceased to be composed for the stage and had become chamber music.

Classical Music

One of the most successful theatrical genres during the second half of the 18th century was, without doubt, the staged Tonadilla. By showing life in a cheerful, humorous and often shameless way, it attracted to the main theatres of Madrid, the Principe and the Cruz, a society wishing to be entertained with fresh and daring presentations of daily matters. An important component of the Tonadillas are seguidillas- songs based on popular dances- which were joined near the end of that century by the Tirana, another musical form that had arisen from Spanish folklore. Both seguidillas and tiranas constitute links between the different social spaces that define the tonal identity of Spanish music at the end of the Enlightenment. Beyond their popularity in the theatre, seguidillas and tiranas as a traditional form of entertainment were also performed in a more personal, private social space: the home. In their most danceable origin, seguidillas and tiranas were accompanied on the guitar, just as they are on this release.

In order to understand the taste of Tomas de Iriarte (1750-1791), it is possible to start with his admiration of Anton Raphael Meng’s work. Maybe, the most representative painting of this artist “Jupiter and Ganymede,” the fake that made history, pretending to be an antique painting and convincing the art theorist Winckelmann that the technique of fresco painting was perfected during the Classical Era. What is interesting of this painting is that it does not depict the exact moment of the kiss between the god and his beloved, but the intention of the kiss. Classical Art was based on suggesting, in persuading, and to subtly invite to reflect (“engage”, Iriarte would say), through insinuation, unlike Baroque Art and its need to show in the raw every scene. This was the key to Classical aesthetics and the taste of the eighteenth century for the antique. For Iriate, Mengs was to painting as Horace was to literature and Haydn to music. These names sum up the ideal of the Enlightenment taste in the didactic poem “The Music,” finished in 1779 and published a year later. The twelve protagonists Spanish composers of this record are mentioned in the Chant III of the poem, the central one, the keystone, called “dignity and the use of music and specially the one at the temple.” The first two Chants (besides the inexcusable prologue with the justification of the poem) are meant, respectively to a didactic explanation of the elements of musical language and to the musical expression of the affections, while the fourth and fifth chants are centered in theatrical music and instrument music practiced in society.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music