Three More from Brilliant Classics

Through these songs we hear the voice of a nation - one of the oldest nations in Europe. In them is embodied the identity of the Catalan people through a popular expression of their national character. The lutenist William Waters has compiled almost 30 songs from Catalonia’s medieval and modern history and arranged them for an early-music ensemble. In spirit, we may listen to the album and join a group of troubadours, even if many of the songs themselves date from the Baroque and later periods.

Waters presents the songs in a variety of arrangements – for solo lute or a pair of lutes, for one or two bass violins with or without chordal accompaniment from the theorbo, and then for a trio of musicians accompanying a soprano. In them we find tales of love, jealousy, escape and murder, the raw material for graphically drawn music by composers up to de Falla, Gerhard and beyond. But there are also gentler numbers that evoke a pastoral mood and depict childhood and rural ways. There is even a harvest song, Els Segadors, which in time became a national anthem for Catalonia.

These stories are explained by brief but valuable contextual notes in the booklet, which also prints the texts of the songs in both Catalan and English translation. A previous Brilliant Classics album by William Waters revives the lute music of the 17th-century Silesian composer Esiaias Reusner (BC95242). The album was reviewed in glowing terms by the Italian Giornale della musica, praising Waters’ sensitive evocation of the ‘peace and tranquillity transmitted by Reusner’s music.’ Here he is joined by the members of a Catalan-based early music ensemble for a vividly presented sense of authenticity.

A unique collection of songs from Catalonia, a Spanish region rich in culture and with a strong identity, its origins going back to the Middle Ages, a period in which troubadours sang of love, war, nature, honor and betrayal.
The program contains songs for voice and ensemble, as well as arrangements of popular melodies for a diversity of instruments from the time of origin.
Sung by Marta Garcia Cadena (soprano) and instrumentalist William Waters, playing baroque lute, lyra violin, bass violin, baroque guitar and renaissance lute.
The extensive booklet notes include the original song texts and their English translation, as well as a description of each individual song. 

 

1 Traditional: Adéu Nina

2 Traditional: Matinet m’en llevo

3 Traditional: La cançó del lladre

4 Traditional: L’Enyor

5 Traditional: El fadrinet

6 Traditional: L’Espanyolet

7 Traditional: Muntanyes del canigó

8 Traditional: Margarideta

9 Traditional: La dama de reus and el capitel·lo

10 Traditional: La dama d’aragó

11 Traditional: El mestre

12 Traditional: El comte arnau

13 Traditional: El cant dels ocells

14 Traditional: Mariagneta

15 Traditional: El mariner

16 Traditional: La cadena d’amor

17 Traditional: La dida

18 Traditional: La calma de la mar

19 Traditional: Plany

20 Traditional: El testament d’amèlia

21 Traditional: Rosa del folló

22 Traditional: La mort i l’enamorat

23 Traditional: La gata i el belitre

24 Traditional: Els segadors

25 Traditional: La dama de reus

26 Traditional: La presó de lleida

27 Traditional: Rossinyol que vas a frança

28 Traditional: La donzella del rosselló

29 Traditional: Adéu Nina

Better known now as the teacher of his nephew Simone Molinaro, one of the more important Italian composers of the post-Renaissance era, Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena is worth knowing in his own right. Born early in the 1540s in Genova, he studied with the renowned Flemish polyphonist Philippe de Monte, composer to the Viennese court of Maximilian II, and he followed de Monte’s example by composing several volumes of sacred and secular vocal music during the 1570s and 80s before he was apparently murdered in 1593 (there are also records of a funeral Mass held for him five years later).

It is through his nephew that we now know Dalla Gostena best, through this volume of lute fantasias posthumously published by Molinaro, and in affecting tribute to the memory of his uncle. A leading figure in the musical life of his home city, Dalla Gostena wrote in a conservative but beautifully wrought style. These fantasias make extraordinary demands upon the performer, due in no small part
to the complex polyphony borrowed from his madrigals and masses. They belong to the repertoire of every skilled lutenist but they are very rarely recorded as a collection, making Elliott Simpson’s new album an essential acquisition for collectors of Renaissance music on record. Born in 1987, this American guitarist has worked with leading composers of our own time such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Alvin Lucier and Michael Finnissy, but he also has an abiding interest in and thorough understanding of the Renaissance-era music which establishes the underlying elements and principles of modern guitar repertoire.

Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena (1540-1593) was born in Genoa, Italy. He was a pupil of the renowned Flemish composer Philippe de Monte. He held the prestigious post of Maestro di Cappella at the San Lorenzo Cathedral in his native Genoa. He composed and published several sets of vocal madrigals.
Gostena’s 25 Lute Fantasies were published in Venice in 1599. The fantasies show evidence of profound instrumental knowledge and make extraordinary demands upon the performer, due in no small part to the complex polyphony borrowed from contemporaneous vocal and keyboard genres.
Elliot Simpson (born 1987) is one of the foremost lute players of the young generation. Recipient of the prestigious Huygens Grant from the Dutch government for his “extraordinary contribution to new music” he has given premieres of works by Gubaidulina, Finnissy, Zimmermann and Polansky. 

 

1 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy I

2 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy II 

3 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy III 

4 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy IV

5 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy V

6 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy VI

7 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy VII

8 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy VIII

9 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy IX

10 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy X

11 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XI

12 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XII

13 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XIII

14 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XIV

15 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XV

16 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XVI

17 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XVII

18 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XVIII

19 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XIX

20 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XX

21 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XXI

22 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XXII

23 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XXIII

24 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XXIV

25 Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena: Fantasy XXV

In a personal introduction to his own authoritative booklet essay, the Spanish violist Alejandro Marías relates how he acquired the rare facsimile of an even rarer manuscript, and came to realise that its contents had never seen the light of day in the modern era, let alone received attention on record. Thus he presents here the First Book of pieces – a second does not survive – by Jacques Morel.

The volume itself was published in 1709, two years before Marin Marais’s Third Book of pieces. Morel’s date of birth is now obscured by time, but we know that he was this book. And indeed Morel makes no a pupil of Marais, to whom he dedicated attempt to disguise the debt he felt to his master within his music.

The book contains four Suites for viola da gamba and continuo – in A minor, D minor, D major and G major, respectively – and a Chaconne en trio for a traverso flute, viol and basso continuo. This gentle and courtly six-minute Chaconne is the only piece of Morel’s that is regularly performed, but the four Suites are full of delightful discoveries. The second of them begins with a Prelude of bold and grave gestures which introduce a colourful suite of character pieces: the Allemande la Jolie (‘The pretty one’), the Courante la Dacier, a gentle, dream-like Sarabande and the Gigue l’Inconstante (‘The faithless one’). To end, there is an enjoyable rondeau, Le Folet (‘The imp’), and La Fanchonnette, reminiscent of a gavotte in feel and structure.

The other three suites are no less picturesque, and they are brought to life once more on this album by an early-music group founded in 2009 and named after a popular Renaissance dance. La Spagna has been awarded Spain’s GEMA prize for best young Early Music group.

Very little is known of the life of Jacques Morel (fl. 1700-1747) except that he was a pupil of the great composer Marin Marais, to whom he dedicated his “premiere livre de pieces de violle”.
The book that contains the pieces of this disc was printed for the first time in 1709, two years before Marin Marais published his Troisième Livre de Pièces de Viole. Morel's music is, of course, very much influenced by that of his teacher, and the author not only does not hide this heritage but he boasts about it.
However, Morel is a later generation and knows how to introduce certain very important innovations in writing for viola da gamba. From the instrumental point of view, Morel's music is closely linked to the French tradition, but you can see an evolution in his fingerings.
Spanish Viola da Gamba player Alejandro Marías studied with Jordi Savall, Anner Bylsma, Christophe Coin and Jaap ter Linden. He is artistic director of the ensemble La Spagna, with whom he discovers and performs hidden treasures of the Baroque.
The excellent liner notes in the booklet are written by the artist.