Antonio Pellegrino - The Greco Brothers & Friends - Works for basse de violon, violoncello and - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This is Volume 12 in Centaur's retrospective of the work of the great violinist Steven Staryk. Staryk has been concertmaster of The Royal Philharmonic, The Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, The Chicago Symphony, and The Toronto Symphony. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada of Ukrainian descent, he began his musical education at 7 years old at the Harbord Collegiate Institute. He pursued further violin studies with Albert Pratz at The Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto) and in New York City. As a renowned teacher, orchestral and chamber musician, and international soloist, he is considered to be the leading Canadian-born violinist of his generation. He is listed in The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada and 23 international publications including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Awards include the Shevchenko Medal, the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal, an honorary doctorate of letters from Toronto's York University, and arts awards from the Canada Council.

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco wrote that 'the cello is an instrument I've always particularly loved,' and this is reflected in the deft way he exploits it's colors and techniques in chamber works recorded here that include unpublished gems and a world premiere. The sophisticated Cello Sonata and Sonatina also reveal the composer's skill as a pianist, giving equal roles in a symbiotic relationship that tests both players' virtuosity. Impressionist flavors in I nottambuli or 'Night Owls' contrast with a Toccata that blends fireworks with lyricism, as does the Jewish soulfulness of the popular Chant hebraique with the playful Scherzo that uses the English traditional tune 'Sumer is icumen in.'

Florence, May 2nd, 1589 on occasion of the wedding of the Grand Duke Ferdinando I and Christina of Lorraine an impressive celebration apparatus was put up to display the magnificence of the Medici household. Behind this official event lay an ambitious project which involved an incredible team of the most important poets and musicians of the time, such as Cristofano Malvezzi, Luca Marenzio, Giulio Caccini, Jacopo Peri, Emilio De' Cavalieri as well as Count Giovanni De' Bardi, who was engaged to compose the Intermedi for Girolamo Bargagli's play La Pellegrina. Renaissance intermediums were sumptuous musical interludes inserted between the acts of a theatrical show on allegorical and moral themes with eclectic references to classical mythology. They are considered as the forerunners of musical opera. The spectacular show, which was performed using a complex stage machinery set up in Palazzo Pitti's Boboli gardens, was an immediate success, so much that the intermediums were performed in the days to follow during another two plays. The Six intermediums in La Pellegrina provide for choral madrigals, double and triple choirs, solo accompanied numbers and instrumental pieces, inserted into the impressive and sumptuous staging by Bernando Buontalenti. 430 years later, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in collaboration with Galleria Degli Uffizi produces the first staging in modern times of the Intermedi della Pellegrina through an itinerant show in Palazzo Pitti's Boboli Gardens. Stage director Valentino Villa's approach was to Inchattempt at an ironic historical reconstruction, [where] imageries blur together, classical mythology is grafted onto contemporary iconographyInch. Conductor Federico Maria Sardelli leads Modo Antiquo and Chorus Master Alberto Allegrezza is at the head of Coro Ricercare Ensemble and Compagnia Dramatodìa.