Emanuela Galli

Composer and cellist Domenico Gabrielli, was born in Bologna on 15 April 1659. He only lived to be 31 and he is a composer probably only familiar to cellists, or rather Baroque cellists. His seven Ricercari for cello solo are indeed the first predecessors of Bach’s cello Suites, and his two cello sonatas and his Canon for two cellos are among the earliest examples of their genre. Much less well-known is the fact that Gabrielli was also a celebrated opera and oratorio composer and published several trio sonatas and (posthumously) a volume of secular cantatas for voice and basso continuo. The present release is completed by some works by Bartolomeo Monari (1662-1707). Emanuela Galli's ravishing voice leads us through these lesser known Baroque compositions revealing the beauty of that music.

Leonardo Vinci (1690-1730) who is rumoured to have been poisoned in the wake of an ill-advised affair, is (with Porpora and Leo) one of the greatest geniuses of Neapolitan Baroque music and the central figure in the creation of a new musical language. This programme offers a wonderful selection of cantatas for soprano, including 'Mesta, oh Dio, tra queste selve', written by V. Tesi, and 'Parto ma con qual core’, written by F. Bordoni. A trip to Naples and Rome in the 18th century, an Arcadian world with a soul, an inordinate passion for beauty, the infinite regret for the loss of a mythical golden age, and murky secret plots.

Stile Galante was founded in the Spring of 2010 and specialises in Italian music, in particular the Neapolitan area, and the enormous legacy of chamber cantatas for solo voice, from the works of Leo, Vinci and Porpora. Composed of talented young European instrumentalists Stile Galante are directed by Stefano Aresi.

Claudio Cavina and La Venexiana now return to the end of the 16th century, following the 'Poppea' of Monteverdi with the 'Artemisia' by Cavalli.

They put their distinctively Italian mark on what was, for a long time, 'secret' music: that composed by Luzzasco Luzzaschi when he was serving the ducal court of Alfonso II of Ferrara. Alfonso brought together 'singing ladies', the Concerto delle Dame, virtuoso performers on instruments as well as with the voice, to delight and entertain the duke’s wife, as well as privileged members of the court. Apparently rival courts sent composer-emissaries to find out what was going on! Kept under lock and key, the music written for the Dame by Luzzaschi and others was only released and published on the Duke’s death.

With Emanuela Galli, Roberta Mameli and Francesca Cassinari, Claudio Cavina has assembled a superb modern-day trio of singers in a further display of La Venexiana’s magisterial control of Italian music as it shifts gears from the Renaissance to the Baroque.

Nicola Antonio Porpora (1686-1768) was a celebrated composer and singing teacher, his ability to set the Italian language to music was internationally acknowledged during his lifetime. In a career that spanned almost 70 years Porpora worked in Naples, Rome, Venice, London, Dresden and Vienna. As a singing teacher he created stars such as Farinelli, Caffarelli and Porporino. Much of his compositional output is of exceptional quality. He made his chief contribution in the vocal realm, having written many worthwhile secular and sacred operas, oratorios, serenatas and cantatas, as well as various lamentations and duets.

The six vocal pieces on Latin text – Sei duetti latini sulla passione di nostro signore Gesù Cristo (1754) – were dedicated to the Electoral Prince of Saxony for private devotional use: “to be sung on Lent Fridays in the Chapel of His Most Serene Highness”. The songs, written as da capo arias for two voices and continuo, fit perfectly into the definition of the genre of the Italian Chamber Duet, with the only peculiarity being the Latin texts.

By the time that Alessandro Scarlatti was writing the two serenatas recorded here by Fabio Bonizzoni and La Risonanza and inaugurating an exciting new series on Glossa, that celebratory cantata form, often employing allegorical characters, had been in existence for a mere half century. Scarlatti, as Bonizzoni says, “was one of the main sources of inspiration for Handel whilst the latter was in Italy, and this creates a real continuity with what we have been doing in the recent past”; notably the much-admired septet of recordings devoted to the Saxon composers Italian chamber cantatas. That sense of continuity extends to the fact that the two works on this new disc – Serenata a Filli and Le muse Urania e Clio lodano le bellezze di Filli – were written in Rome in 1706 and probably for the same patron in Francesco Maria Ruspoli who furthered Handel’s own career. Fresh from his harpsichord recording of Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge, Fabio Bonizzoni now, with the subtle and stylish instrumentalists of La Risonanza, is not only choosing to illuminate an unexplored genre on record, but is also shedding light on an unknown facet of Alessandro Scarlatti’s own prodigious output. Here, the serenatas are given dramatic vitality by regular partners in Bonizzoni’s artistry: sopranos Emanuela Galli and Yetzabel Arias Fernández and countertenor Martín Oro. As well as the elder Scarlatti producing examples of these courtly 'dramatic cantatas' future releases on this new series will demonstrate the quality of the contributions in the serenata form by Handel himself and also by Antonio Vivaldi.

“Cavina’s wonderful account goes straight to the top of the list of recommended recordings. Do not miss it.” Editor’s Choice, Gramophone, November 2007

Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889) is frequently compared to Paganini, and not without good reason: both were charismatic musical personalities who captivated the public wherever they appeared, and both revolutionised the playing techniques of their respective instruments. Bottesini introduced the solo bass strung with only three strings and tuned a whole-tone higher than usual in order to attain a more brilliant and sustainable sound. This musician, already a legend in his own time, not only performed as a travelling virtuoso on the stages of the world but also as a celebrated operatic conductor and composer. It is therefore no wonder that Italian opera also strongly influenced his compositional production.

The double bassist Alberto Lo Gatto recorded his CD with the programmatic title 'Belcanto' with an Italian bass built during the19th century, played in so-called solo tuning, and his accompanist Luca Antoniotti also plays an historic instrument, an Érard grand piano built in 1871. They interpret variations and fantasias based on arias of Bellini and Paisiello in which Bottesini sounds out the entire spectrum of the double bass, from lyrical expressiveness to breakneck virtuosity.

Moreover, we can also hear the soprano Emanuela Galli, who sings some of the opera themes in their original versions and interprets the well-known romance 'Une bouche aimée'.