NEAPOLITAN CELLO CONCERTOS Leo, Fiorenza, De Majo, Sollima
I Turchini Antonio Florio
GCD 922604
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Giovanni Sollima, violoncello
I TurchiniAntonio Florio
Production details
Total playing time: 71:56 Recorded in Naples (Sala del Vasari, Chiesa di S. Anna dei Lombardi) in September 2011 Engineered and produced by Matteo Costa Design: Valentín Iglesias Booklet essay: Dinko FabrisEnglish - Français - Deutsch - Italiano
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NEAPOLITAN CELLO CONCERTOSLeo, Fiorenza, De Majo, Sollima
Leonardo Leo (1694-1744) Concerto di violoncello con violini (D minor) – Naples, 1738 01 Andante grazioso 02 Presto con spirito 03 Amoroso 04 Allegro
Nicola Fiorenza (c.1700-1764) Concerto per violoncello ed archi (Bb major) – Naples, 1728 05 Largo 06 Allegro 07 Largo 08 Allegro
Giovanni Sollima (1962) “Fecit Neap. 17..” per violoncello, archi e continuo – Naples, 2011 dedicated to Antonio Florio
Nicola Fiorenza Sinfonia a 4 violini e basso continuo (C minor) – Naples, c.1730-40 10 Largo 11 Fuga 12 Largo 13 Allegro
Giuseppe de Majo (1697-1777) Concerto per violoncello ed archi (F major) – Naples, 1726 14 Comodo 15 Grave 16 Allegro
About this CD
Giovanni Sollima has been successfully pursuing a twin career as cellist and as a composer and it is in both capacities that the Palermo-born musician appears now on a new recording from Glossa. Sollima teams up with I Turchini of Antonio Florio in a captivating demonstration of virtuoso concerto treasures from Leonardo Leo, Giuseppe de Majo and Nicola Fiorenza. The quality of their committed music-making is underscored by Dinko Fabris who, in an accompanying essay, provides yet another lucid exposition of a musical climate unknown to many.
Giovanni Sollima’s empathy with the spirit of the 18th century concerto allows him not only to provide – and to play masterfully – elegantly appropriate cadenzas for the works of his forebears but to compose a modern work comfortable and at ease with its Neapolitan past (and entitled “Fecit Neap. 17..”, mirroring the frequentlyfound ascription found on manuscripts in the 18th century).
With a solo cellist in Giovanni Sollima, who is equally at home in the musical worlds of Patti Smith, Claudio Abbado and Philip Glass, and a director in Antonio Florio, who is equipped with his own masterful overview of Neapolitan music from the Baroque onwards, this new disc was recorded in a venue, the old Santa Anna dei Lombardi monastery complex in the heart of Naples, which serves to point up how powerful a forging ground for cello music Naples was from the end of the 17th century and into the 18th, as well as in our own time.
A distinctive musical voice in Giovanni Sollima makes his debut on Glossa both as a cellist and as a composer, in a partnership with Antonio Florio resulting in a disc of cello concertos which is no mere digression from I Turchini’s habitual exploration of the secular and sacred vocal music of the Neapolitan Baroque. Sollima, a native Sicilian, is a living embodiment of that strong serious/popular vein running through Southern Italian music-making and, primarily a cellist, he has elsewhere performed with strong musical minds as varied as DJ Scanner and Claudio Abbado, Yo-Yo Ma and Patti Smith or Philip Glass and Giuseppe Sinopoli. His intuitive awareness of the spirit of the Neapolitan Baroque makes him admirably placed to participate in this exploration of the importance of the cello in Naples in the 18th century.[read more...]
A well-established Baroque music ensemble is joining Glossa, with Antonio Florio and the Cappella della Pietà de’ Turchini making an agreement to record one or two discs per annum here. Founded in 1987, the baroque orchestra and its vocal soloists connected with the Centro di Musica Antica Pietà de’ Turchini in Naples have become internationally-celebrated for their exploration of Neapolitan music from the 17th and 18th centuries. Florio – aided by eminent scholars such as Dinko Fabris – has successfully breathed new life into a forgotten repertory, with a string of recordings and concerts as testament to the vitality of the musical scene in Naples in these times, especially through its operatic and sacred music. [read more...]