Claman / Bowers Fader Duo - Between Us All - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Claremont Duo - Divertimento [COMPACT DISCS] date 04/27/2004

We love Paul Salerni. Ever since our first collaboration in 2016, when we first played Bad PetsInch, we knew we had found something special. This was confirmed soon after when he wrote us four cycles in about two months. All this repertoire inspired us to formally establish ourselves as The Bowers Fader Duo. Paul has written more music for us than any other composer and we love it's humanity, humor, and range of expression. It is truly a joy to per-form these songs and we are honored to present this album.Inch (Jessica Bowers and Oren Fader) Created in 2009, the Bowers Fader Duo performs both classical and con-temporary repertoire. Their ongoing mission is to promote new American art songs for mezzo and guitar, through commissions, performances, and recordings. To date, they have presented over 40 world premieres of works written for them. Since 2016, the Duo has presented their series, New American Art Songs for Mezzo and Guitar, three times each season in venues around New York City.

The autograph of Bernardo Pasquini's collection Sonate per uno o due Cembali con il basso cifrato is held at the British Library of London (Ms. Add. 31501, I). It consists of three small compositions written in intavolatura notation (Tastata, Corrente, Aria), as well as Sonatas and Bassi written in figured bass notation, so-called partimenti. The pieces are marked with dates from 6 May 1703 to 3 December 1704, suggesting the time when the work was created, or possibly copied. The Sonatas and Bassi form a substantial collection of 28 pieces, 14 of each type. The Sonatas are for two keyboard instruments, while the Bassi are for one. The recordings of the Sonatas presented on this album are fully written-out pieces, not a sound recording of improvisations. The partimento notation became a pretext for Joanna Solecka to develop different varieties of polyphonic texture, in accordance with the rules of counterpoint characteristic of the composer's period. In the presented realisations there is thus room for canon, fugue and free imitative polyphony, as well as for contrastive polyphony and nota contra notam texture. The realization of the Sonatas in counterpoint style is a truly fascinating study of elaborate polyphony and composition, requiring insight beyond the ephemeral nature of improvisation. Hopefully the presented interpretations of Bernardo Pasquini's Sonate per due Cembali con il basso cifrato will take listeners not only on a journey through the world of Baroque contrapuntal techniques, but above all will touch their souls with their variety and depth of affect.