Pierre Boragno (recorder), Marianne Muller (viola), Massimo Moscardo (luto) & François Saint Yves (organ & harpsichord)
Beautifully performed, recorded and presented survey of 14th Century Court music.
Violist Marianne Muller follows up the critically acclaimed Marin Marais CD of 2007.
A must for early music fans.
Played according to Ganassi’s treatises by Pierre Boragno recorder, Marianne Muller viola, Massimo Moscardo luto, François Saint Yves organ & harpsichord.
The influence of the Book of the Courtier pushed the aristocracy of Europe to play musical instruments. “One should know how to play, to improvise with above all easiness for his friends or his court.” Sylvestro Ganassi, probrably trombonist in Venise, answered perfectly this social need with three treatises related to the art of improvisation and diminutions : Fontegara (1535), Regola Rubertina (1542), la Lettione seconda (1543).
Pierre Boragno has studied them. They are full of indications helping the improvisation process, the diminution of all popular tunes… Together with Marianne Muller, Massimo Moscardo and François Saint Yves, they applied these propositions of diminutions, appropriate them to put forward this fascinating program which gives the intimate and virtuose atmosphere of XVIth European Courts.
“The four instrumentalists performing on this CD have made it their mission to master the art of improvising in the 16th-century style. Their formidable command of diminution (filling in between the composed notes) and their individual, expressive genius astonish and delight.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2009
