On Feb. 5, 2023, on the podium of the Mehta Hall of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino we will find maestro Federico Maria Sardelli, who will conduct a rich program all focused on the figure of Giovanni Battista Lulli/Jean Baptiste Lully, a great Florentine-born composer who was one of the leading exponents of French Baroque music. The maestro will conduct the Orchestra del Maggio and the Chamber choir ‘Ricercare Ensemble’ (prepared by the Maestro Rocco Adami).
The musical evening will open with a suite for orchestra (Suite composée à la mémoire immortelle de l’incomparable M.r De Lully), a world premiere, composed by maestro Sardelli himself in May 2009. A work in eight movements, it opens with a tripartite overture that begins a succession of dances culminating in a chaconne.
The second part of the concert includes three compositions by Lulli: the Passacaille d’Armide, LWV 71: “Les Plaisirs ont choisi pour asile” for soloists, choir and orchestra; Omnes gentes LWV 77/10, a petit motet for 2 sopranos, bass and basso continuo; and, in closing, the magnificent Te Deum LWV 55, grand motet for soloists, small choir, large choir and orchestra, still considered a monumental page of sacred music of the Baroque period. The Te Deum was composed by Lulli in 1677 and performed at Versailles and at the Château de Fontainebleaue on the occasion of the birthday of Louis XIV (the Sun King).
Speaking about the concert program, Maestro Sardelli explained, ” Performing a concert in front of the general public of a little-known composer like Lulli puts a great responsibility on one’s shoulders, especially in terms of choosing the pieces to be performed to be ‘fished’ from his repertoire.Thus, I tried to ‘divide’ the program into two main parts. The first, secular, and the second part of the performance which is instead aimed at Lulli’s sacred music. After my ‘little tribute,’ which of course does not fit into the selection criteria of the playbill, there is an example of opera with the great Passacaille d’Armide, a short but forceful and extremely moving piece, representative of Lulli’s classic tragédie lyrique, truly representative of the musician. Then the second part of the performance will turn to the ‘sacred’ Lulli, an important chapter in his production represented with the two ‘poles,’ namely the petit motet and the grand motet. They are really delightful, microcosms of affections with para-liturgical texts in which the voices first sing together, except then have the only little recit at the end as if they were characters in a ‘micro-drama’ for music. Finally, the marvelous Te deum, a swan song for Lulli that makes it perfectly clear how beautiful Lulli’s grand motet was, even in its very structure, as well as the pompous and sweeping glory shaded by moments of enormous intimacy, which make one realize the compositional greatness of this musician. ”
He then continued on the Te Deum: “We will therefore perform musical pages of extraordinary beauty; although I know I am ‘partisan’ in saying that. Giovanni Battista Lulli is a very Florentine composer but one we have almost forgotten about in Italy: prominent among the pieces in the Feb. 5 concert is the grandiose Te Deum, perhaps the highlight of the evening and composed in 1677 to solemnize the birthday of King Louis XIV, for small and large chorus and orchestra soloists, and which constituted in part the ‘fateful’ event in the composer’s life when he struck himself on the foot with the large staff with which he was conducting, during a concert celebrating an almost miraculous recovery from an illness of Louis XIV, and caused himself a nasty wound, which would soon become infected, leading to his death in 1687. ”
Six soloists alongside Federico Maria Sardelli during the course of the evening: Elena Bertuzzi, Dessus; Rui Hoshina, Dessus; Emma Alessi Innocenti, Bas-dessus; Aco Bišćević, Haute-contre; Alessio Tosi, Taille; and Mauro Borgioni, Basse.
The concert was organized in cooperation with the newly established Giovanni Battista Lulli Institute, founded on November 28 on the occasion of the 390th anniversary of the great composer’s birth and directed by Federico Maria Sardelli himself. In this regard, the maestro stressed, ” Together with my friend and ‘disciple’ Samuele Lastrucci, we decided to found the Giovanni Battista Lulli Institute to promote the knowledge and music of this great musician. By founding this Institute I wanted in part to speed up the pace on the rediscovery of Lulli, partly because still the Florentine documents on the early part of his life, here in Florence, are still very laconic. This February 5 concert, after the summer performance of Acis et Galatée that was staged in July, is the second stage in this new Lulli revival. We already have a contact with the Ensemble musique baroque de Versailles, who are already supporting us by providing us with their scores of critical editions and will come here to give master classes. We also have a nice connection with the French Institute in Florence, and on Sunday we will have the pleasure of hosting the new consul at the concert. ”
