FloReMus – CONCERT A’ BOIRE: Music in the Courts of Princes | Ensemble Baroque Lumina

Programme

• C. Malvezzi (1547-1597) from the Intermedio L’Armonia delle Sfere of La Pellegrina (1589),
  Sinfonia I for Harpsichord, Theorbo and Viola da gamba.
• A. Archilei (1543-1612) from the Intermedio L’Armonia delle Sfere de La Pellegrina,
  Dalle più Alte sfere for Soprano, Theorbo, Harpsichord and Viola da gamba.
• C. Malvezzi from the intermedio Il canto d’Arione from La Pellegrina,
  Io che l’onde raffreno for Soprano, Theorbo, Harpsichord and Viola da gamba.
• S. Garsi da Parma (1542 –1604) L’Aria del Gran Duca for solo Lute
• G. Caccini (1551-1618) from Le Nuove Musiche (1601),
  Sfogava con le stelle for Soprano, Theorbo, Harpsichord and Viola da gamba.
• G. Frescobaldi (1583-1643) from the Second Book of Toccatas (1628),
  Aria known as la frescobalda (Aria, Gagliarda and Corrente) for solo harpsichord.
• G. Frescobaldi, from the Primo libro d’arie musicali (1630),
  Voi partite mio Sole for Soprano, Theorbo, harpsichord and viola da gamba
• G. Frescobaldi, from Primo libro delle canzoni accomodate per sonare con ogni sorte di strumenti (1628),
  Canzona a basso solo detta La Tromboncina for Viola da gamba, Harpsichord and Theorbo.
• C. Monteverdi (1567-1643) from Selva Morale et Spirituale (1640-1641),
  Laudate Dominum for Soprano, Theorbo, Harpsichord and Viola da gamba.

Ensemble Baroque Lumina
Emma Alessi Innocenti: Soprano
Andrea Benucci: Theorbo and Lute
Iris Faceto: Viola da gamba

Giacomo Benedetti: Concertation and Harpsichord

Programme notes

The intent of the concert and our group is to popularize mainly the musical repertoire of Florentine scope ranging from the mid-1500s to the late Baroque, using copies of original instruments and performing the pieces according to historically informed practice.
In this program the common thread is “recitar cantando” in its iteration from the first to the seconda prattica when Florence, between the church of Santa Felicita, the Camerata dei Bardi and the Pitti Palace, was a meeting point for many composers.
The first composers proposed are among the earliest protagonists of the new Florentine musical form: the pieces are excerpts from the Intermediate Pellegrina commissioned in 1589 by Ferdinando I de’ Medici for the celebrations of his marriage to Christina of Lorraine and staged by Giovanni Bardi, count of Vernio and leader of the famous Camerata de’ Bardi: A. Archilei , C. Malvezzi, V. Galilei, G. Caccini were among the members of the famous symposium whose intent was to write music different from that composed by Palestrina and Zarlino, defined as the first practice. This second practice involved a single melody subject to the text, the focus of the expression of taste and affect, accompanied by basso continuo; a greater freedom of writing than the strict rules of the first practice. The path continues with Girolamo Frescobaldi who, at the invitation of Ferdinando II de’ Medici, moved to Florence in 1630 where he composed Il primo libro delle canzoni a 1-4 voci and the Arie musicali: the expressive musical writing highlights the new practice with even greater intensity. With Claudio Monteverdi the musical journey ends: a key figure of the second practice that consolidated and elevated melodrama and sacred music by making them solemn, brilliant and eternal.

Date event and location

9th September 2022, 7:30 pm | Murate Art District (MAD), Piazza delle Murate, Florence