A young ensemble of instrumentalists and singers revives the precious historical practice of singers accompanying themselves (already brought back into currency by the soloist VivaBiancaLuna Biffi), thus producing a wholly new sound in music usually assigned to unaccompanied voices. With Concerto di Margherita, self-accompanied singing becomes ‘collective’ for the first time in our era, and is amplified in a shared gesture in which all the members of the group – playing and singing together with extraordinary coordination – produce a sonority unprecedented in this repertory. Created at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, the group (which is named after the Duchess of Ferrara, Margherita Gonzaga) performs as a consort of five voices, theorbo, harp, viola da gamba, guitar and lutes, inspired by the Concerto delle dame of Ferrara.
The recording debut of Concerto di Margherita presents arrangements of a wide range of instrumental and vocal works (madrigals, villanellas and canzonas), drawing on music by De Wert, Gastoldi, Monteverdi and the ‘blind man’s buff’ scene from Giovan Battista Guarini’s Il pastor fido (1580).
Works: •
Frescobaldi: Canzon terza
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Gabrieli, A: O belli e vaghi pizzi
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Gabrieli, G: Canzon prima à cinque, Ch. 195
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Gastoldi: Cieco Amor non ti cred’io
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India: Occhi belli, occhi sereni
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India: Occhi de’ miei desiri e d’amor nidi
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Kapsberger: S’io sospiro e s’io piango
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Kapsberger: Veri diletti qua giù non regnano
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Monteverdi: Dolci miei sospiri
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Wert: Cara la vita mia
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Wert: Chi mi fura il ben mio?
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Wert: O primavera gioventù