Wednesday 13th July 2022 – 7.30 pm
Heath Street Baptist Church – Hampstead
SCULPTING THE FABRIC
La Vaghezza
MAYA KADISH – violin
IGNACIO RAMEL – violin
ANASTASIA BARAviera – cello
GIANLUCA GEREMIA – theorbo
MARCO CROSETTO – harpsichord
Programme
-T. Merula (1595-1655): Ballo detto Eccardo, from “Canzoni ovvero sonate concertate per chiesa e camera”
-F. Cavalli (1602-1676): Canzona a 3, from “Musiche sacre”
-T. Merula (1595-1655): Ballo detto Gennaro, from “Canzoni ovvero sonate concertate per chiesa e camera”
-C. Monteverdi (1567-1643): ‘Cor mio non mori? E mori’ [diminutions by Mayah Kadish]
-G. B. Fontana (1589-1630): Sonata settima, from “Sonate a 1, 2, 3 per il violin o cornetto, fagotto… o simile altro istromento”
-interval-
-B. Marini (1594-1663): La Zorzi
-G. B. Vitali (1632-1692): Bergamesca, from “Partite sopra diverse sonate”
-F. Turini (1589-1656): Sonata a due violini. Seconto tuono
-A. Gabrieli (1533-1585): ‘Giovane donna sott’un verde lauro’ [diminutions by Ignacio Ramal]
-S. Rossi (1570-1630): Sinfonia nona, from “Sinfonie et gagliarde, Libro primo”
-A. Falconieri (1585-1656): ‘Folias echa para mi Senora Dona Tarolilla de Carellanos’
Sculpting the Fabric
The music in this programme shapes a portrait of colours and atmospheres found in the early 1600s in Italy. It is a music originality, unpredicatability, extravagance, experimentation and great freedom – qualities held dear by La Vaghezza. We have included several of the most influential composers of the period, while also seeking to highlight reportoire that has not been widely played. The musical forms chosen (sonate, balli, etc.) aim to provide an overview of the musical landscape of the time.
The 1600s saw the musical score become a more complex animal than in the previous century, and yet much of the music’s detail was not written into it, but rather left to the sensibility of the performer. Great importance was given to the graces, ornaments, improvisations and diminutions that the performer would add. The scores that have been handed down to us through the ages are the skeleton, the bones, to be fleshed out and given blood by the performer as they weave their own into the music.
Roger North talked beautifully about this process in his autobiography, maintaining that the sound a musician produces must then be sculpted, carved, by means of graces and ornaments. It is from this idea that we loosely took inspiration for the title of this programme, Sculpting the Fabric. The historical practices of carving the fabric in this musical period, are an invitation for performers to keep reinventing this music, for each utterance of the music to be a creative act
La Vaghezza
La Vaghezza is a trio sonata ensable playing music from the 17th and early 18th Centuries, with a special interest in the unpredicatbility, extravagance, originality and freedom found in 17th Century Italian music. Their musical interpretations are historically informed, but always guided formost by their common sensibility as an ensamble and their search for ‘La Vaghezza’, an aesthetic concept which describes a beauty impossible to understand or grasp: like smoke, somenthing calling to be touched yet remaining intangible.
Since their founding in 2016 they have performed in Europe’s most esteemed early music festivals and concert series such as Utrecht Early Music Festival, Bruges MA Festival, Monteverdi Festival Cremona, Gottingen Handel Festspiele, Ambronay Festival, Innsbruck Festival, Buxton Festival, Festival MiTo, Auditorium de Lyon, Cité de la Voix Vezelay, Thessaloniki Baroque Festival, Società Aquilana Barattelli, Valletta International Festival, Festival de Musica Antigua Sevilla and York Early music Festival. They were the first group to win all three prizes at the prestigious Handel Gottingen Competiotion (2018), and were awarded first prize in the Maurizio Pratola International Competiotion (2016).
The member of La Vaghezza are all highly sought after instrumentalists in their own right, working with internationally renowned artists in the world’s most celebrated concert halls. The five musicians take an equal role in directing the group musically, and the two violins play first and second violins interchangeably.
La Vaghezza are grateful to have been supported by the EEEmerging young artists scheme since 2017. Their debut album ‘Sculpting the Fabric’ explores Italian music from the 1600s and was released on Ambronary Editions in March 2021.