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https://www.romania-muzical.ro/articol/ansamblul-de-muzica-veche-giardino-di-delizie-cd-review-1-2-martie-2023/3634571/8251/2?fbclid=IwAR23f0lVdJOMUtkShNoms4E65HXNvx-iKPMBJkNxafVevAMLKfHpKNTtBN4


World premiere recording of Carlo Mannelli's Trio-sonatas op. 3
The forgotten music of a 17th-century Italian master, performed by the Giardino di Delizie, one of Europe's most highly regarded early music ensembles of today - is what comprises the album released on 1 March 2023 on Brilliant Classics. It's a double disc featuring triosonatas, a musical genre that always reserves us discoveries and real gems forgotten in music libraries throughout Italy. This album brings together Trio sonatas op. 3 by Carlo Mannelli, a composer from Rome about whom few details are known. Unfortunately many of his scores have remained unpublished and lost to time.
The composer Carlo Mannelli was born in 1640 in Rome, where he worked and died in 1697. He was in charge of staging opera performances and religious events in Rome, and for some years was the director of the famous Congregation of Santa Cecilia, to which he bequeathed his fortune for the benefit of the poorer members of the monastery; Carlo Mannelli also made a name for himself as an exceptional violinist, played as a soloist with the most important ensembles of the time in Rome, and was also a violin teacher, as the famous composer Arcangelo Corelli wrote, describing Carlo Mannelli as one of the most influential teachers in Baroque Italy. The musician composed hundreds of instrumental works and several vocal pieces, most of which have been lost. Of these only two sets of trio sonatas are known, Op. 2 published in 1682 and Op. 3 dated 1692, both published in Rome. The first volume was dedicated to Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, and the second - to Prince Domenico Rospigliosi. The pieces in the op. 3 set are characterised by formal freedom and variety, but also melodic inventiveness, surprising and daring harmonies for the Baroque period, chromatic passages, elaborate violin writing and exceptional tonal richness. Compared to other composers of the time, Carlo Mannelli distinguished himself by creating more eccentric, distinctive music, departing from the strictness of the composer Arcangelo Corelli and other Italian musicians of the second half of the 17th century. In Carlo Mannelli's scores the sequences of tempi are unpredictable; they do not follow the familiar baroque patterns. Mannelli's Op. 3 collection premiered on disc, performed by the Giardino di Delizie ensemble.

The ensemble has the merit of having brought to light valuable music neglected for over three centuries; in addition the performance on period instruments, the elegance of the discourse, the contrapuntal inventiveness and the attention to stylistic detail of Carlo Mannelli's music make these recordings a reference in the international discography.

The "Giardino di Delizie" ensemble was founded in 2014 in Rome and is led by Polish violinist Ewa Anna Augustynowicz. The ensemble is composed of musicians from Italy and Poland: Anna Skorupska - project manager and performer on baroque violin, Valeria Camponnetto - on violin, cellists Agnieska Oszanca and Valeria Brunelli, Sofia Ferri and Giorgia Zanin on theorbo, lute and baroque guitar, and Elisabetta Ferri - on harpsichord, organ and fortepiano. The ensemble's main aim is to discover and promote lesser-known Italian and Polish baroque music; as a result, it has so far printed seven albums including pieces by Mikolai Zilenski, Alessandro Stradella, Carlo Ambrogio Lonati and Isabella Leonarda, among others. In 2019 the ensemble recorded for its debut album - a world premiere - instrumental pieces by Carlo Ambrogio Lonati, and a year later dedicated a disc to Polish Baroque music. In 2021 it printed two CDs - with works by Italian composers Lelio Colista and Alesandro Stradella. Last year, the ensemble released two more discs - the first with baroque pieces inspired by Polish folklore and the second featuring the complete trio sonatas by Isabella Leonarda. And the seventh and most recent Giardino di Delizie album is dedicated to the music of Carlo Mannelli.