Giovanni Rovetta

Anthony Rooley writes: ‘In the mid-1970s this humble lute-player had theatrical pretensions! I realized quite early on in my performing career that audiences generally needed more help to “get inside” the beautiful obscure music I was discovering, and if their appetite was to be fostered, a new dimension in the manner of presentation had to be found.

‘Quite unexpectedly, I discovered it in some of the most obscure music I had hitherto worked with – duets and dialogues from the mouths of nymphs and shepherds, created for a court circle of nobility who thoroughly enjoyed adopting the manners and playfulness of what was regarded as suitable for “pastoral customs” from the ancient world of Arcadia.

‘To revive this art-form meant urging my singers to adopt appropriate characters – lamenting nymphs, raunchy shepherds, hard-done by Goddesses or erotic Gods – and done with a degree of theatricality not yet seen in the “early music revival” of the 1970s. Performances were noted for their strait-laced manner – but now we had to step out and “be” someone, be playful and passionate. Early music was never quite the same after that!’

This collection gathers together some of the most delectable of 17th century duets both from England as well as from Italy. Any Emma Kirkby recording is an event, and this reissue, making its first appearance on CD, will be no exception. Also issued on CD for the first time is Amorous Dialogues, the companion recording to Pastoral Dialogues. The extensive booklet includes the original notes, a new introduction by Anthony Rooley and full texts and translations.

The pieces on this recording demonstrate the consummate art with which the German composers reconciled the new ideas imported from Italy at the very beginning of the 17th century (the principle of the basso continuo, accompanied monody, the concertato technique) with local traditions, thereby giving birth to works of a subtle beauty and an almost inexhaustible richness. This stylistic revolution paved the way to the flourishing of great forms like the vocal solo, the spiritual concert, the cantata, etc. cultivated by composers as different as Schütz, Buxtehude, Tunder and Erlebach: in the very heart of Baroque Europe the Germans were taking their place.

1615 and 1630 - these are the two dates delimiting the period from which the pieces on this CD were drawn, and each marks both an end and a beginning. In 1615, Giovanni Gabrieli’s Canzoni et Sonate were published posthumously. His music was still being imitated fifty years later. The year 1630 saw Venice ravished by the plague. Fifty thousand people died, including many singers and musicians working at San Marco, the most important musical institution of Venice.