Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi

The Festival Montréal Baroque takes place every year in June, in the neighborhood of Old Montreal. The founder and director of the festival, gambist Susie Napper, infuses this event with a festive air, concocting unusual and original programs. As an associate of the festival, ATMA co-produces certain concerts, which are then recorded. This sample disc, signaling the approach of Montréal Baroque 2005, presents extracts from recordings made at previous festivals, some of which have not yet been released.

Three important and characteristic instruments played a unique role in the endlessly rich repertoire of the early Italian baroque: the arpa doppia (double harp), the chitarrone (a kind of theorbo), and the chitarra spagnola (Spanish guitar). Whether playing virtuosic solo music, whether lending a simple continuo accompaniment, or joining voices in contrapuntal ensembles, these plucked and strummed strings create a spicy aural experience which relates to both senses of the Italian verb \0x2522pizzicare\0x2522 (to bite or pinch). Whether you are thinking of the plucking of a string, or the addition of \0x2522un pizzico di sale\0x2522 to a delicious meal, let Pizzico stand for the delight of all the senses.

This double CD, which features two pieces in world première recording, can be considered among the most important record publications dedicated to the sacred music of Monteverdi. The impression one gets from hearing these pieces in chronological order is that of the progressive emancipation of the vocal style from the church one, in the wake of the ”modern” concept introduced by opera. The seemingly plain and simple writing of these works tricked many into judging it of modest quality. This, however, was due to the fact that they ignored what, today, is universally accepted: it was implicitly understood by professional musicians that, according to their own skills and competence, performers would add more or less copious and elaborate ornamentations. Performers, under the conduction of Roberto Gini, are specialists of early music.

Cathy Berberian was born in the United States of Armenian parents. While proficient in the traditional concert repertoire, Miss Berberian was renowned for her contribution to contemporary music. Her enormous flexibility and range together with a strong sense of theater and innate musicality have been acclaimed by press and public alike, and have inspired the creation of compositions by major contemporary composers such as Berio, Bussotti, Cage, Milhaud, Maderna, Pousseur, etc. One of the highlights of her career was her musical relationship with Stravinsky who made the final version of the “Elegy for JFK” for her voice and with whom she gave concerts and made Columbia recordings of Stravinsky’s vocal music.