Bertali: Prothimia Suavissima - parte seconda

Ars Antiqua Austria, Letzbor, Gunar

A 340

The violin experienced its first heyday in the 17th century with its relatives viola and violoncello and emancipated itself from the viola da gamba instruments, which had still dominated the string music of the Renaissance and early Baroque. She freed herself from the "smell of the instrument of primitive dance musicians", as Gunar Letzbor puts it in the accompanying text of this CD. Northern Italy is the clear centre of violin music, Italian musicians often made their way across the Alps and found employment particularly frequently at the numerous princely courts in Germany. With their help, the Sonata, the most important new development in instrumental music, quickly spread throughout Europe • Antonio Bertali, born in Verona, came to Vienna in the 1620s and was to remain active there until his death in 1669. His appointment as Imperial court composer in 1649 marked the culmination of his career. Little is known about Bertali's broad oeuvre. His sonata collection Prothimia Suavissima (Sweetest Lust), printed in 1672, contains music of diverse character; it identifies its creator as an imaginative composer who may well have served as a model for the two great Austrian violinists of the second half of the 17th century, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer and Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber.

CD

17.06.2009

3464858013402