Record of the day: Girolamo Frescobaldi, “Canzoni”
Jerome Frescobaldi
“Songs” (CD Alpha 053)
There are no superlatives that can convey the idea of how beautiful the music of Girolamo Frescobaldi is, one of the authentic geniuses our country can boast of.
The composer from Ferrara should be placed on the same level as Bach, even if his current popularity is decidedly less. Just like the Saxon master, Frescobaldi was a great improviser and soloist of harpsichord and organ (he was organist in Rome in the cathedral of St. Peter for over twenty years); in his production, which should be listened to and enjoyed in its entirety, there are wonderful madrigals for voices but also the famous volume of Toccate e intavolature per clavicembalo, one of the key works in the literature of this instrument (and in music in general).
In these pages, expressive panoramas of incredible beauty open up, and from the rhapsodic succession of ideas it transpires as
were to be Frescobaldi’s harpsichord improvisations, which left his contemporaries speechless and brought him fame throughout Europe.
No less beautiful are the collections of “Fiori musicali” and “Canzoni da sonare” recorded in the CD recommended today; the brightness of Frescobaldi’s melodies, moreover, goes well with the summer light, as do the transparency of the writing and the spontaneous freshness of the rhythms of these works. The score divides these instrumental pieces in order of instrumentation, starting from pieces for solo instrument and arriving at compositions for four parts and basso continuo.
Two different versions of the work, created in 1628 and 1635 respectively, differ considerably (in some pieces there are actual transformations) according to a very common practice at the time. This gives the performers the opportunity to propose different angles of the same compositional model, considering the fact that Frescobaldi’s music requires soloists who know how to improvise variations and are capable of understanding the spontaneous and unpredictable nature of the music, which often brings together in an unprecedented way and under the same roof different instrumental musical forms such as song, fugue and variation.
The French ensemble Les Basses Réunies, composed mainly of strings, tackles these arduous pages with extraordinary skill and competence, giving us a genuine joy of listening.
Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical subjects.
This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: Un disco per ogni giorno dell’anno” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.
