Avison / Squillante / Accademia Mandolinistica - Charles Avison: Concerti Grossi after Scarlatti - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The Accademia Strumentale Italiana was founded in Verona in 1981 with the specific purpose of recreating the atmospheres of those ancient and illustrious academies, where the pleasure of meeting one another gave a special flavour to making music together. It's repertoire encompasses instrumental and vocal music ranging from the Renaissance to the early Baroque, performed according to strict philological canons, but without compromising it's ability to comunicate with the present. The Accademia has performed extensively in Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Germany and has been invited to several international festivals where it has always met with widespread critical acclaim. The pieces on this new are centered around a single idea comedy. Each piece has an element of humor and would have been used to lighten the mood on stage. Album Tracks 1. Ballo Del Gran Duca E Scioita 2. Che Sarà, Che Non Sarà 3. La Montovana 4. Fuggi Fuggi 5. Padoana Alla Francese 6. Ancor Ch'ai Parturire 7. Bergamasca 8. Vecchie Letrose 9. Paduana Del Re 10. O Dolce Vita Mia 11. Celeste Giglio 12. Chi Passa Per 'Sta Strada 13. Canzone de L'imperatore 14. Capriccio la Sol Fa Re Mi 15. Mille Regrets 16. The Choice 17. Vorrei Che Tu Cantasse Una Canzone 18. Matona Mia Cara 19. Il Estoit Une Fillette 20. Improvvisazione Su la Romanesca 21. Amanti Io VI So Dire 22. Aria E Sarabanda 23. Damigella Tutta Bella, Passacaglia Della Vita

This album sketches a portrait of the musical reality of the British Isles during the first half of the 18th century. The huge success of the Italian concerto grosso was a response to the necessity of freeing music from a secondary role to which it found itself confined, notably in France with ballet music. Unaffected by the rivalry between French and Italian music, the British seemed to be attracted by purely instrumental music; the concerto grosso consequently afforded them a freshness, a boldness, and a hint of unique maestria that held an immediate appeal. Thus it was that the concerto grosso emigrated, as did a number of Italian composers who responded to the emotional needs and the demands of an English 'market' that encouraged artistic initiative, promised financial satisfaction, and offered the opportunity of achieving fame. This was the case with Francesco Scarlatti, the brother of the celebrated Alessandro, who made almost his whole career in London and Dublin. Few of his works have survived beyond the six concerti grossi featured on this programme. You are invited by the young Polish ensemble {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna, conducted by it's first violin Martyna Pastuszka, to journey from Italy to the United Kingdom. Warm, varied sonorities highlight the splendor and expressivity of music that is now lively or dancelike, now gentle, melancholic or meditative. To be discovered! Album Tracks 1. Concerto Grosso No. 2 in C minor 2. Concerto Grosso No. 8 in F Major 3. Concerto Grosso No. 3 in a Minor 4. Concerto Grosso No. 9 in D Major 5. Violin Sonata Op. 1 No. 1 in G Major 6. Violin Sonata Op. 5 No. 3 in C Major 7. Concerto Gross No. 1 in E Major 8. Concerto Gross No. 4 in E minor

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. Album Tracks 1. Sonata in Re Maggiore Gimo 144~Allegro maestoso 2. Sonata in Re Maggiore Gimo 144~Largo Pizzicato 3. Sonata in Re Maggiore Gimo 144~Allegro assay 4. Sonata in Do Maggiore L 2767~Allegro 5. Sonata in Do Maggiore L 2767~Largo amoroso 6. Sonata in Do Maggiore L 2767~Allegro 7. Sonata in Re Maggiore Gimo 142~Allegro 8. Sonata in Re Maggiore Gimo