Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Giovanni Battista Bassani has few surviving works from his mysterious life. For this release, his oratorio Giona is presented. Giona was debuted at the court of Francesco II d’Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio, which was surely a milestone in Bassani’s career. Performing this work is “Les Nations,” an ensemble which specializes in rediscovering oratorios from the Renaissance and Baroque eras.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

About Giovan Battista Gervasio's life we have only a few, fragmentary pieces of information. We do not know the exact years or places of his birth or death, and can only surmise that he was born in Naples in the third decade of the eighteenth century, and that he died after 1786, year of the publication of the last printed composition of his that is available to us. The music recorded here is a performance of the six sonatas in manuscript form preserved in Uppsala and Paris, the complete corpus of Gervasio's currently known sonatas. The InchordisTrio has been performing Giovan Battista Gervasio's sonatas for mandolin and basso continuo since it's establishment, including them in it's concert programmes. It is a very interesting, sometimes even surprising, music. In spite of it's rough formal simplicity, it turns out to be particularly effective and able to evoke the eighteenth-century Neapolitan Baroque atmosphere, through a series of stylistic features that belong to the typically Neapolitan composition procedure, with melodic solutions that are enjoyable, captivating, and pleasantly engrossing for both listeners and performers. The structure of the InchordisTrio, which is formed exclusively of plucked string instruments, stimulates a performance research and a rather distinctive construction of the basso continuo, based on an alternation of accompanying instruments, of empty and full parts, of timbres, and also on little melodic exchanges between the mandolin, the archlute and the harpsichord.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The city of Modena, under the rule of the Este family, was the capital of the Dukedom of Modena e Reggio. Thanks to Duke Francesco II's fondness for the violin, music became an essential element in the most important events at the Este court, such as receptions, weddings and official visits of foreign sovereigns. These were the occasions in which the Duke displayed all his magnificence. Modena stands out for the abundance of it's collection of musical documents in the Biblioteca Estense: the library is a real mine, largely unexplored so far. This consideration gave rise to the idea of making this beautiful, extraordinarily modern music available to those who are "pursuing" culture and art. So our goal is to promote a rediscovery of the enormous heritage preserved in the Biblioteca Estense, by carrying out a meticulous study of the sources of the works of the composers who were active at the Este Court in Modena, transcribing them into modern notation and critical editions, and producing monographic recordings of them. The first step consisted in the study and recording of the instrumental works of Giovanni Battista Vitali. In this second of 6 albums dedicated to his music preserved at the Estense Library of Modena, the baroque group Italico Splendore is introducing us to the sonatas for two violins and continuo op. 2 that, due to their destination (for both chamber and church), are characterized by a brilliant and lively score, anticipating the concerting style that would have emerged a generation later, thanks to Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vivaldi.