Storace, B: Ballo della Battaglia (organ)

Italian composer and organist Bernardo Storace was the assistant music director of the senate in the city of Messina in the second half of the seventeenth century.

Here, Jörg Halubek, a young organist who won the first prize in organ at the International Bach Competition in Leipzig in 2004, plays a selection from Storace’s variations on well-known dances and melodies of the time.

Bernardo Storace’s Selva di varie compositioni, published in Venice in 1664, is one of the greatest outpourings of sheer inventiveness in music history. The two passacaglias on this fascinating disc contain no fewer than 320 variations, which are crowned – as are the Ciaccona and the two Passamezzi – with dashing dances, correnti and gagliarde, pointing towards the later development of the Baroque suite. These fine 17th-century pieces in which Frescobaldi’s powerful influence is evident, are played on a modern copy of a beautiful 1697 Italian harpsichord whose clear, rich sound is ideal for this music.

Rec.date: 1998

As soloist and director of his ensemble L'Amoroso, founded in 1997, Guido Balestracci plays throughout Europe, the USA, South America and Asia. His recordings have met with an enthusiastic reception from the press and the public, winning such awards as the Goldberg Prize, 10 de Répertoire, Diapason d’Or and Diapason decouverte. He regularly appears with distinguished artists as Jordi Savall, Paolo Pandolfo, Emma Kirkby, Gabriel Garrido, Christophe Coin and Christophe Rousset. This recording – previously available on the Symphonia label under the title “Consonanze Stravaganti” – presents Italian music for consort of viols. The programme comprises of compositions written specifically for viols together with arrangements of compositions originally for other instruments.