Respighi / Corelli / Tebaldini / Merlini - Transcriptions for STRS & Organ - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The pieces, recorded here, form merely the tip of a fascinating iceberg. When medievist/archivist André Nieuwlaat initially shared his discoveries (much more Dowland lute music) with lutenist Mike Fentross two years ago, he realized immediately their importance. Every composer has his own musical signature. Trusting the experience that Mike Fentross has gained throughout his thirty-year career as a professional lute player, and as Professor of Lute at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague for the last 15 years, he started to make a selection from all the pieces in the pertinent manuscripts. He let himself be guided by musical intuition, by the essence of the pieces, and by constantly asking himself the question do I recognize Dowland's hand in this? The overall quality of the pieces to choose from was very impressive, and the answer to this question was ' Yes, I recognize Dowland in these works, without a shadow of a doubt'. His work pays off with this fascinating .

Within this new album the Armonia delle Sfere ensemble is delivering to us the complete Produzioni Armoniche work by Antonia Bembo, a collection of 41 motets dedicated in 1701 to Louis XIV, in whose court she landed after a series of vicissitudes occurred in Venice, her hometown, including the failure of a marriage and important family disputes, for which she was deprived of her paternal inheritance. After being trained under the musical guidance of Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676), organist of the ducal chapel of San Marco, Antonia secretly married Lorenzo Bembo, a Venetian nobleman, from whom she had two children, and from whom in 1672 she herself asked divorce, due to the continuing absence of her husband, whom she also accused of continuing abuse and betrayal. She then moved to Paris, perhaps following the guitarist Francesco Corbetta, where she concentrated on music and composition, and where she had the opportunity to perform in the presence of Louis xiv, at the court of which she would find acceptance and protection until the end of her life. It is the fascinating story of a strong personality that sought and found it's way overcoming the difficult condition of a seventeenth century woman artist.

Respighi / Macinanti - Respighi Complete Organ Works [COMPACT DISCS] date 06/02/2017