Italian music, English style – La Serenissima celebrates the Italian musicians who shaped the English baroque, and the continental composers who wrote with an English accent.
English music has never been an island. In the baroque era, the musical traffic between Britain and the continent went both ways, with leading composers of all nations assimilating each other’s voices in an exuberant multinational riot of styles and sounds. La Serenissima – the flamboyant British ensemble that takes its name (and its energy) from Venice – dives into that melting pot today, celebrating the music of Purcell and his brilliant (but still little-known) Anglo-Italian follower Nicola Matteis, and tracing their legacy through a generation of European composers, including Telemann and the astonishing, wildly imaginative music of Giuseppe Brescianello.
Programme
Chacony for strings & continuo
Henry PURCELL (1659 – 1695)
Ouverture-Suite for strings & continuo in g, TWV 55:g5
Georg Philipp TELEMANN (1681 – 1767)
Adagio – Allegro
Loure
Bourée 1 – Bourée 2
Menuet 1 – Menuet 2
Air Angloise
Concerto for violin, strings & continuo in B♭
Nicola MATTEIS the Younger (c1677 – 1737)
Sinfonia: Allegro
Adagio
Air: Allegro e Presto
Sarabanda
Allegro
Ouverture & Ballo to La Verità nell Inganno
Antonio CALDARA (1670 – 1736) & Nicola MATTEIS
[Viola part to Ballo reconstructed by Adrian Chandler]
(Ouverture): Largo – Presto – Adagio – Presto
(Ballo): Aria per li Masacari
Aria per li Sultani
Aria
Tempo di Cicona [sic]
-interval-
Concerto II: Il favorito for violin, strings & continuo in e, Opus 11, RV 277
Antonio VIVALDI (1678 – 1741)
Allegro
Andante
Allegro
Ouverture-Suite in C for strings & continuo
Giuseppe Antonio BRESCIANELLO (1690 – 1758)
Ouverture – Fuga
Aria: Allegro
Adagio
Hornpippe [sic]
Bourée
Aria – Adagio
Aria
Aria – Adagio
Aria
Aria
Gigue – Allegro
Chaconne for strings & continuo in A
Giuseppe Antonio BRESCIANELLO
Performers
La Serenissma