SOLO
The Humanist Lute - Improvisation and Magic in Leonardo’s Italy
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Towards the end of the 15th century the lute became the instrument of predilection of the European courts. Considered as the Orpheus’ lyre by the humanists, it enchanted the courtiers by its sounds and harmony.
The first music written for this instrument dates from this avant-gardist passage of the century and in 1507 the first printed book of instrumental music was published in Venice. Lute players, such as Marco Dall'Aquila, Giovan Maria Giudeo, Joan Ambrosio Dalza and especially the cantori al liuto, such as Bartolomeo Tromboncino and Marchetto Cara were sought after by the most important courts, such as that of the Este in Ferrara, Gonzaga in Mantua and the Medicis in Florence. But the authors of the first works for lute were above all great improvisers, inventing ex-tempore polyphonic pieces (ricercari), different dances, such as piva, bassadanza and calata, and verses in ottava rima.
This period of high humanist and cultural flowering was marked by great discoveries and experimentation in several fields, including music. Figures like Leonardo da Vinci, searched for new sounds by inventing new instruments. The lute has also benefited from such experiences and its surprising variations will be presented here for the first time in this almost entirely improvised program.
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Ricercare
Ottava d’introduzione
Calata ala spagnola (after J. A. Dalza)
Calata ala spagnola ditto Terzetti (after J. A. Dalza)
Ricercare
Malor me bat (Johannes Ockeghem)
Bassadanza
Ricercare
Zephyro Spira (Bartolomeo Tromboncino)
Ricercare dietro
Ricercare
Padoana descordata (after Vincenzo Capirola)
Che Faralla (Michele Pesenti / Vincenzo Capirola)
Ricercare
Passamezzo e Saltarello ala Bolognesa (after Giovanni Maria da Crema)
Su, su, leva (Bartolomeo Tromboncino)
Piva (after J. A. Dalza)
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“The day closed with a most impressive recital by Bor Zuljan, […] One really had the sensation that one was hearing exactly what one would have heard from a lutenist-singer giving an evening’s entertainment to courtiers at an Italian court around the year 1500. Bor Zuljan moved effortlessly between recercars, songs and song intabulations, with a sense of complete familiarity with the material, exactly as the lutenists of the time would have had.”
Chris Goodwin, Lute News 125, May 2018
Dowland - A Fancy
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The first notes of the descending chromatic theme break the silence and it seems as if time has stopped. The listener is drawn into the world of John Dowland, the greatest lutenist of all, in a journey through multiple shades of melancholy and lucent hope. Never before had the lute sounded as expressive and colourful as in these masterful Fancies, as dynamic as in these sparkling dances: Renaissance lute music here reached its summit. In this programme Bor Zuljan explores these qualities, breathing new life into Dowland's masterpieces.
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A Fantasia (P71)
Preludium
A Fancy (P6)
A Dream
The Right Honourable, the Lady Clifton’s Spirit
Forlorn Hope Fancy (P2)
Pavana Johan Douland
Galliarde (anon, Aegidius Ms)
A Fancy (P73)
Lachrimae
Can she excuse
A Fancy (P5)
Fortune My Foe
Sir John Smith, His Almain
My Lady Hundson’s Puffe
Il liuto del Principe
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The scandalous composer Carlo Gesualdo, Principe di Venosa, was also an excellent lutenist extolled by his contemporaries. At the end of the sixteenth century he received the first two prototypes of the archlute from his colleague Alessandro Piccinini in Ferrara, one of which he kept. In the absence of music for the lute by this composer of genius, Bor Zuljan has imagined the sound world of the prince’s archlute: a kaleidoscope of fabulous and extreme sonorities on this extravagant instrument, from transcriptions of his vocal and instrumental music to the astonishing chromatic compositions of the composers he is thought to have encountered in the course of his turbulent life.
Includes works by C. Gesualdo, A. Piccinini, J. H. Kapsberger, P. P. Melli, C. Saracini etc.
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Pietro Paolo Melli (1579 - c.1623)
Il Ciarlino Capriccio Chromatico
Alessandro Piccinini
Corrente IX
Carlo Gesualdo (1566 - 1613)
Beltà poi che t’assenti
Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger (c.1580 - 1651)
Gagliarda 12a
Alessandro Piccinini (1566 - 1638)
Toccata Cromatica XII
Aria di saravanda in varie partite
Vicenzo Bernia (c.1570 - c.1620)
Toccata cromatica
Alessandro Piccinini
Corrente I senza canto
Pietro Paolo Melli
Corrente detta l’Alfonsina
Anonymous (Aegidius lute book)
Galliarde
Claudio Saracini
Toccata al Signor Alfonso Strozzi
Bellerofonte Castaldi (1580 - 1649)
Cromatica Corrente
Carlo Gesualdo
Gagliarda del Principe di Venosa
Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger
Toccata 6ta
Corrente 7a
Toccata 3a
Pietro Paolo Melli
Corrente Cromatica detta la Bernardella
Volta chromatica detta la Savia
Alessandro Piccinini
Ricercare Primo
Passacaglia
Il liuto Cromatico
(Dowland in Italy)
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John Dowland / Philippe Rosseter
A Fantasia
John Dowland
Forlorn Hope Fancy
Joachim Van de Hove
Allemande
Saltarello (improvisation)
Nicolas Vallet
La Mendiante Fantasye
John Dowland
Pavan Johan Douland
Anon. (Aegidius lute book)
Galliard
Gregorio Huwet
A Fantasia
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Michelangelo Galilei
Toccata
Corrente
Volta
Pietro Paolo Melli
Il Ciarlino Capriccio Cromatico
Corrente detta l’Alfonsina
Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger
Toccata 3a
Bellerofonte Castaldi
Cromatica Corrente
Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger
Toccata 6ta
Pietro Paolo Melli
Corrente Cromatica detta la Bernardella
Volta Cromatica la Savia
Alessandro Piccinini
Ricercar Primo
Passacaglia
duo
The Birth of the Guitar
(Il Bordelletto)
with Massimiliano Dragoni - Percussion
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Tracing the origins of one of today’s most popular instruments takes us to Spain and Italy of the Renaissance. First music for this instrument dates from the mid 16th century, although guitar shaped plucked-strings instruments appear at least half a century before.
This colorful programme imbued with improvisation depicts the creation of guitar’s particular idiom and techniques, from the intimate polyphonic style of the 16th century, to the sparkling dances that defined the guitar music of the following centuries, all the way to flamenco.
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In nocte consilium - the night brings counsel. Poets have always found the night to be a time of appeasement; for astronomers it is a long-awaited moment to observe the stars and planets. Mystics, however, have spent entire nights searching for the enigmatic signs of a divine presence. This programme forms a journey from dusk to dawn and guides us through various nights as described by several composers of the 16th century: we travel from hope to absence, from the sweetness of love’s dream to the chills of eternal night; the clear light of the moon nonetheless guides lovers to their reunion and our journey ends in the light of the first rays of the sun. Janequin, Lassus, Palestrina, Guerrero and their Franco-Flemish, Italian and Spanish colleagues lead us as we explore these nights, sometimes dark and terrifying, sometimes radiant with starlight, tranquil, and filled with love.
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trio
Tales from the ancient Balkans
with Ratko & Radiša Teofilović - voice
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Baba is a contemporary narration on ancestral beauty and wisdom, an infinite dialogue between old and new, the east and the west. The archlute in the role of the narrator skilfully transforms itself into different traditional instruments of the Levantine region, its roots, and takes the listener into different musical landscapes, nostalgic and full of old symbols. There he encounters centuries old stories in the form of folk songs, personified by the unique voices of the Teofilovići twins.
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La Lyra
La barca del mio amore
music by Giacomo Gorzanis
With Pino De Vittorio - voice
3-5 musicians
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Giacomo Gorzanis (c.1530-c.1575), ‘il Cieco Pugliese’, was one of the great lute virtuosos of the sixteenth century. Born in Apulia, by 1557 he had settled in Trieste, where he soon established close contacts with the nobility of Carinthia and Carniola. His travels also took him to Graz, where he performed for Charles II, Archduke of Austria and brother of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II. Four books of his lute music and two books of napolitane were published in Venice between 1561 and 1579. Of particular interest is his manuscript of 1567, containing twenty-four pairs of dances in all the ‘major’ and ‘minor’ modes. From intimate lute fantasias to lively dances and playful villanelle alla napolitana, this original and colourful programme is the first to present the full range of his works. Full of little-known treasures, it is enriched by the extraordinary voice and presence of the charismatic Puglian singer Pino De Vittorio.
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