Colista – Sinfonie a tre

Cover of the CD
Release Date: 2020-09-18
Available now on:

Ewa Anna Augustynowicz, baroque violin & artistic director

Katarzyna Solecka, baroque violin

Valeria Brunelli, baroque cello

Fabrizio Carta, archlute & baroque guitar

Elisabetta Ferri, harpsichord & organ

 

Recording: 4-7 November 2019, Saint Francis Church, Trevi

Producer & Sound Engineer: Luca Ricci

Editing: Luca Ricci

Booklet: Pasquale Imbrenda

Photos: Pasquale Imbrenda

Cover: Romina Farris www.rominafarris.it

2020 Brilliant Classics

 

Awards:

Nomination to the Prestigious German Award ” Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik”

https://www.schallplattenkritik.de/bestenlisten/longlist/longlist-1-2021?fbclid=IwAR1pTkKbcQwVn1Pi2M9m9nPI1Scy_l5ADR3uhmk13_gGrd8kJQBz4kCI2es



Special thanks to

PASQUALE IMBRENDA and ASSOCIAZIONE BUCCINESI NEL MONDO for supporting this project financially

and

THE TOWN HALL OF TREVI for letting us the use of the Saint Francis Church for the recording.



Radio Podcasts:

RADIO RAI TRE PRIMO MOVIMENTO

RADIO CAPODISTRIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypBjnwV87yU&list=PLZMCKKFfS-PZJIb9-Kf5iOE_eODY5Ayjd

RADIO VATICANA

https://www.vaticannews.va/it/podcast/radio-vaticana-musica/lo-scrigno-musicale/2020/10/lo-scrigno-musicale-16-10-2020.html?fbclid=IwAR2B30sYyCQz3RBFf1d8OIz4SpSoTXduakT2wYZF-IrxTk8lpKELFD_Gy1M

RADIO CLASSICA

https://soundcloud.com/radioclassica/podcast-stravaganze-barocche-lelio-colista?fbclid=IwAR2XtUCDALhicOteSCsKfMx2Gb-NIDp_xKneXLGdGULuoG0oSr-TXtlIrAs

 

Album Review

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Musica dei Donum November 2021
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org/cd_reviews/BrilliantClassics_96033_96079_95590.html?fbclid=IwAR1-1GXZvzzHfok6D1zYrbapZ3mNm5JU6QmUOXHq1wDDOsaY7A4w3dU3ufc
Johan van Veen (© 2021)
"These Sinfonie are very nice pieces, and it is hard to understand why they have been almost completely ignored. The Ensemble Giardino di Delizie shows that these pieces deserve to be better known, and are the ideal advocates of Colista and his music."

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American Record Guide Jan/Feb 2021
COLISTA: Sinfonie a 3
Ensemble Giardino Di Delizie/ Ewa Anna Augustynowicz—Brilliant 96033—75 minutes
I had high praise for this ensemble’s Lonati program (Brilliant 95590, J/A 2019), and I’m about to do the same here. Composer and lutenist Lelio Colista (1629-80) was h
ailed in Rome as “an Orpheus” and even as a boy he was on stage as a dancer amidst the opulence of the Barberini court’s theatrical productions. Later he performed as a musician at the highest churches and courts in Rome.
These pieces date from Alexander VII’s papacy (1655-67), they are preserved in the Giordano 15 manuscript in Turin’s Biblioteca Nazionale, and we know that some were performed in 1664 on Christmas Eve at Santa Maria Del Popolo in Rome. They were composed with the assumption that the finest players were available to play them the reputation of Rome as having “the greatest instrumentalists of the time” spread well beyond that city and beyond Italy.
Their full noble sound belies the fact that there are only 5 players in Ensemble Giardino Di Delizie. Around half of the sinfonias have harpsichord in the continuo, and others are anchored by the historic organ where the recording was made, St Francis Church in Trevi, Italy. Its oldest pipes date from 1509.
The playing is very fine, full of verve and panache. There’s a fine breadth of phrase as the music is given time to breathe, and the ebb and flow in rapid passagework is nimble and varied. Graceful dancelike sections alternate with fluid fugues (a hallmark of the Roman tradition), and in two of the sinfonias there’s an indication in the score that if the players wish and are up to the challenge they should insert an improvisatory section between the first and second movements.

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Il Fatto Quotidiano 19.12.2020
Prof. Giuseppina La Face
"L’Ensemble esalta la serena severità del costrutto contrappuntistico e nel contempo la sonorità piena ma morbida di questa musica, il fraseggio elegante, il contrasto ritmico nitido, mai aggressivo: si ascolti l’inizio della Sinfonia VI, pacato, cantabile, con movenze di danza che lo strutturano in controluce; o quello più assertivo della terza; o l’altro più suadente, a tratti spirituale, della nona. Un’esecuzione pregevole, che ha il merito di riportare all’attenzione un compositore di qualità e consente agli studiosi di ampliare il quadro musicale della Roma seicentesca."

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Ruch Muzyczny 28.01.2021
"Athanasius Kircher nazwał Lelia Colistę "Orfeuszem Rzymu". Kompozytor, lutnista i gitarzysta ostrogi zdobywał na dworze Barberinich i u papieża. Międzynarodowa sława przyszła po tym, jak jego grą zachwycił się Ludwik XIV. Sinfonie a tre z lat sześćdziesiątych XVII wieku - ekspresyjne i melodyjne, ozdobne i bogate w ścisłą polifonię - to ważne, jak się okazuje, ogniwo w rozwoju stylu rzymskiego i sonaty triowej. Polsko-włoski zespół działający w Wiecznym Mieście nagrał je po raz pierwszy w historii fonografii. I zrobił to wyśmienicie."
Piotr Matwiejczuk

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Spanish Music Magazine Melomano XII.2020
“Ewa Anna Augustynowich nos muestra una muy buena dirección musical del conjunto desde el vio- lín. Todas las piezas están interpretadas con estilo adecuado y haciendo uso de una buena técnica de la ornamentación, tan necesaria en la música italiana del primer Barroco. La escritura de estas obras con pocas alteraciones en la tonalidad nos advierte que harían uso seguramente de algún tipo de temperamento mesotónico, que no admite tonalidades con demasiadas alteraciones. La combinación de clave y órgano le da variedad al bajo continuo y la guitarra barroca le da buen carácter rítmico. La toma de sonoridad es buena, así como la resonancia de la Iglesia. Otro buen trabajo de este joven y prometedor ensemble.”
Àngel Villagrasa Pérez

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Rivista Musica XI.2020
"L' Ensemble si è distinto per adesione stilistica, dominio della non facile scrittura, inesauribile vitalità, traducendo il composito universo dell'autore con il dovuto slancio fantastico, con incisività ritmica, con intesa e coesione perfette (qualita`, queste ultime, che costituiscono la cifra peculiare del gruppo).”
Claudio Bolzan

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L' Ape Musicale X.2020
“L' Ensemble Giardino di Delizie ci fa apprezzare le caratteristiche della scrittura di Colista nella tornitura di un suono caldo e soffice quanto chiaro e nitido, di un bell'impasto timbrico omogeneo nelle cui sfumature restano ben intellegibili le linee dei diversi strumenti, cosa di non secondaria importanza data l'attenzione che Colista riserva alle parti del basso. L'agilità dell'esecuzioni a parti reali si concretizza in grazia e leggerezza; l'evidenza del contrappunto non traspare come in lugubre radiografia, anzi, si porge con fraseggio suadente, mobile, scevro da ogni frenesia o nervosismo e abile nel dosare colori e densità nell'articolazione metrica della frase.”
Roberta Pedrotti

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Early Music Review
„The Ensemble Giardino di Delizie playing in the pleasingly resonant acoustic of the Church of St Francis in Trevi, take an energetic and imaginative approach to this fine music, alternating organ and harpsichord, and archlute and guitar in their continuo group and playing with sensitivity and considerable musicality.”
D. James Ross