Altri canti d'amor by L'Estro d'Orfeo

Various composers

L'Estro d'Orfeo

Altri canti d'amor

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917276022
Catnr: CC 72760
Release date: 08 September 2017
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917276022

Catalogue number
CC 72760

Release date
08 September 2017

"A highly successful and very musical debut album of the young ensemble L'Estro Orfeo, which specializes in chamber music of the Baroque."

Klassik.com, 19-11-2018

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

Leonor de Lera:

This debut CD of L’Estro d’Orfeo ensemble takes its title Altri Canti d’Amor from a madrigal found in Claudio Monteverdi’s Eighth Book of Madrigals. The program focuses on the music of the Italian Seicento and more precisely on the schools of northern Italy; mainly the Venetian school. It combines both instrumental and vocal pieces- the latter in instrumental versions- connected to the subject of ‘love’. Using instruments instead of the voice may initially seem perverse for such a title, but to me, it suggests the idea of “other ways of singing about love”;

We thus reaffirm the great value and importance that instruments started gaining in the first half of the 17th century, where they ceased serving merely as accompaniments to the voice and gradually became the main protagonist of the musical scene, attaining a level of virtuosity that had never been explored before.

Stemmige Noord-Italiaanse muziek uit de 17e eeuw
Altri canti d'amor is het debuutalbum van het L'Estro d'Orfeo ensemble, onder leiding van violiste Leonor de Lera. De muziek op het album stamt uit de Noord-Italiaanse school van de 17e eeuw. Vooral uit de Venetiaanse school, maar ook uit Lombardije en Modena. Het zijn zowel instrumentale als vocale stukken - de laatste in instrumentale arrangementen - alle rondom het thema 'liefde'. Het ensemble L'Estro d'Orfeo speelt hier stemmige muziek, heel geschikt voor een contemplatief moment.

Eeuwenlang werden instrumenten alleen ingezet als begeleiding voor de stem. Maar in de eerste helft van de 17e eeuw ontstond er een zoektocht naar een soort 'zingen' met instrumenten, waarbij de zangpartij gespeeld werd door een instrument en de schoonheid van deze instrumenten benadrukt werd. Zo kregen instrumenten steeds meer een eigen plek binnen de muziekpraktijk en werd er een virtuoos niveau bereikt als nooit tevoren.

De titel van het album, Altri canti d'amor verwijst naar een madrigaal (herderszang) dat gevonden werd in het achtste Madrigalen boek van Claudio Monteverdi. Leonor de Lera: "Het gebruik van instrumentarium in plaats van de menselijke stem, lijkt in eerste instantie misschien pervers bij zo'n titel, maar voor mij is het slechts een andere manier van zingen over liefde. In feite volgen wij de authentieke muzikale traditie. Voor het stemmen hebben we de A=466Hz toonhoogte gebruikt, die in die tijd in Noord-Italië in zwang was. Een halve toon hoger dan bij de moderne toonhoogte. Zo konden we een zeer helder geluid met veel natuurlijke boventonen realiseren."

Leonor de Lera:

Diese Debüt-CD von L’Estro d’Orfeo erhielt ihren Titel Altri Canti d’Amor von einem Madrigal aus Claudio Monteverdis Achtem Madrigalbuch. Das Programm konzentriert sich auf Musik des italienischen Seicento, genauer auf die Schulen Norditaliens, und hauptsächlich auf die venezianische. Es vereint sowohl Instrumental- als auch Vokalmusik – letztere in Instrumentalfassungen – rund um das Thema Liebe. Instrumente anstelle von Stimmen zu verwenden mag bei diesem Titel zunächst verkehrt erscheinen, doch für mich liegt dabei die Idee von einer anderen Art und Weise nahe, über die Liebe zu singen.

So bekräftigen wir den hohen Wert und die große Bedeutung, die Instrumente in der ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts gewannen, als sie nicht länger als bloße Begleitung der Stimme dienten, sondern sich allmählich zur Hauptfigur der musikalischen Szene entwickelten und so virtuos eingesetzt wurden wie nie zuvor.

Artist(s)

L'Estro d'Orfeo

Founded by Leonor de Lera in 2015, L’Estro d’Orfeo has been heralded by the critics as an “ensemble of exceptional quality”. Specialising in instrumental music of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, played on period instruments, with an historically informed approach in line with the aesthetics of the time. Their purpose is to champion instrumental music that marked the beginning of a new era and a new concept in music: instrumental virtuosity. L’Estro d’Orfeo takes its name and inspiration from the Greek legend of Orpheus. Son of the god Apollo, god of the music and the arts; and Calliope, the muse of poetry and eloquence; Orpheus inherited from them the gift of music and poetry. As Apollo was considered the best musician...

L’Estro d’Orfeo takes its name and inspiration from the Greek legend of Orpheus. Son of the god Apollo, god of the music and the arts; and Calliope, the muse of poetry and eloquence; Orpheus inherited from them the gift of music and poetry. As Apollo was considered the best musician amongst the gods, so Orpheus was considered the best musician amongst the mortals.

L’Estro d’Orfeo released their debut CD “Altri Canti d’Amor” in September 2017 under the Dutch label Challenge Classics, which received rave reviews in leading classical music magazines.

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Javier Núñez (harpsichord)

Leonor de Lera (violin)

Born in Madrid, of Spanish-French origin, Leonor was influenced by both cultures from the very beginning. She starts her violin studies at the age of 6 in the Conservatorio Profesional de Música Adolfo Salazar, after which she continues her learning with Ara Malikian.
She moves to London in the year 2000 to continue her studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with the late Mr. Yfrah Neaman. Shortly after and due to her increasing interest in early music, Leonor decides to specialize in baroque violin and goes on to study with Ms. Rachel Podger, completing her Bachelor of Music diploma in 2004. She was awarded a scholarship to study a Postgraduate course at the Royal Academy of Music, where she continued as a student of Ms. Podger’s, graduating in 2006. She then continued to develop her skills as a baroque player with the renowned violinist Enrico Onofri.
Leonor has taken part in many courses and masterclasses with important players such as Manfredo Kraemer, Olivia Centurioni and Pavlo Beznosiuk.
She was part of I Giovani della Montis Regalis in Italy in 2009, Le Parlement de Musique – Génération Baroque 2010, and the Orchestre Français des Jeunes Baroque 2011-2012, in France.
She has worked with orchestras and ensembles such as Accademia Bizantina, L’Arpeggiata, Cappella Mediterranea, Ensemble Elyma, Divino Sospiro, Capriccio Stravagante, Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, Los Mvsicos de sv Alteza, Euskalbarrokensemble, Coral de Cámara de Pamplona, La Capilla Real de Madrid, Orquesta Barroca del Conde Duque, XVIII-21 Le Baroque Nomade; and under the direction of people such as Enrico Onofri, Leonardo García Alarcón, Christina Pluhar, Gabriel Garrido, Stefano Montanari, Alessandro di Marchi, Reinhard Goebel, Skip Sempé, Martin Gester, Vanni Moretto, and Laurence Cummings, to name but a few.
Leonor is also the founder, artistic director and violinist of L'Estro d'Orfeo, an early music ensemble that specialises in the instrumental music of the 17th century.
MEMBERS: Leonor de Lera, aritistic director & baroque violin Josué Meléndez, cornetto Rodney Prada, viola da gamba Josep Maria Martí, theorbo & baroque guitar Javier Núñez, harpsichord YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8cGIFFA000 FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/lestrodorfeo/

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Josué Meléndez (cornetto)

Lucia Giraudo (baroque violin)

Rodney Prada (gamba)

Josep Maria Martí (theorbo)

Composer(s)

Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Monteverdi was an Italian composer and conductor, whose work marked the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque. Moreover, he composed the earliest operas that are still regularly performed today.
Monteverdi worked as maestro di capella at the court of the duke of Mantua and at the San Marco in Venice. He was a famous musician during his lifetime, but his compositions also provoked opposition. The conservative theorist Giovanni Maria Artusi criticized the technical flaws in some of Monteverdis madrigals. The composer defended himself by making a distinction between two styles of composition, the prima prattica, in which the harmony is dominant, and the seconda prattica , in which the music is subordinate to the text. Monteverdi championed the seconda prattica, and eventually broke with traditional Renaissance polyphony and began to employ the basso continuo and recitative to do better justice to the text.
Monteverdi wrote amongst others eight books of madrigals, two collections of liturgical music and various operas. The opera L'incoronazione di Poppea is considered a culminating point of Monteverdi's work. It contains tragic, romantic, and comic scenes and warmer melodies than previously heard.

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Biagio Marini

Biagio Marini (1594-1663) has possibly studied with his uncle, the Domincan Giacinto Bondioli. Marini's works were printed and were influential in European musical life. He travelled his entire life, worked in Brussels and over thirty years in Neuburg an der Donau and in Düsseldorf, with Monteverdi in Venice at St Mark's Basilica, and in cities like Padua, Parma, Ferrara, Milan, Bergamo, and Brescia.There is evidence that he married three times and fathered five children. He died in Venice.
Although he wrote both instrumental and vocal music, he is better known for his innovative instrumental compositions. He contributed to the early development of the string idiom by expanding the performance range of the solo and accompanied violin and incorporating slur, double and even triple stopping, and the first explicitly notated tremolo effects into his music. He made contributions to most of the contemporary genres and investigated unusual compositional procedures, like constructing an entire sonata without a cadence (as in his Sonata senza cadenza). Many of his works have been lost, but those that have survived time demonstrate inventiveness, lyrical skill and harmonic boldness. In addition to his violin works, he wrote music for the cornett, dulcian, and sackbut.

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Tarquinio Merula

Marco Uccellini

Barbara Strozzi

Francesco Cavalli

Francesco Cavalli (born Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni 14 February 1602 – 14 January 1676) was an Italian composer of the early Baroque period. He took the name 'Cavalli' from his patron, Venetian nobleman Federico Cavalli. He was born at Crema, Lombardy and became a singer (soprano) at St. Mark's Basilica in Venice in 1616, where he had the opportunity to work under the tutorship of Claudio Monteverdi. He became second organist in 1639, first organist in 1665, and in 1668 maestro di cappella. He is chiefly remembered for his operas. Cavalli began to write for the stage in 1639 (Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo) soon after the first public opera house opened in Venice. He established so great a reputation...

Francesco Cavalli (born Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni 14 February 1602 – 14 January 1676) was an Italian composer of the early Baroque period. He took the name "Cavalli" from his patron, Venetian nobleman Federico Cavalli.
He was born at Crema, Lombardy and became a singer (soprano) at St. Mark's Basilica in Venice in 1616, where he had the opportunity to work under the tutorship of Claudio Monteverdi. He became second organist in 1639, first organist in 1665, and in 1668 maestro di cappella. He is chiefly remembered for his operas. Cavalli began to write for the stage in 1639 (Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo) soon after the first public opera house opened in Venice. He established so great a reputation that he was summoned to Paris from 1660 (he revived his opera Xerse until 1662, producing his Ercole amante. Franceso Cavalli died in Venice at the age of 73.
Cavalli was the most influential composer in the rising genre of public opera in mid-17th-century Venice. Unlike Monteverdi's early operas, scored for the extravagant court orchestra of Mantu, , Cavalli's operas make use of a small orchestra of strings and basso continuo to meet the limitations of public opera houses.
Cavalli introduced melodious arias into his music and popular types into his libretti. His operas have a remarkably strong sense of dramatic effect as well as a great musical facility, and a grotesque humour which was characteristic of Italian grand opera down to the death of Alessandro Scarlatti. Cavalli's operas provide the only example of a continuous musical development of a single composer in a single genre from the early to the late 17th century in Venice — only a few operas by others (e.g., Monteverdi and Antonio Cest) survive. The development is particularly interesting to scholars because opera was still quite a new medium when Cavalli began working, and had matured into a popular public spectacle by the end of his career.
Cavalli wrote forty-one operas, twenty-seven of which are extant, being preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (Library of St Mark) in Venice. Copies of some of the operas also exist in other locations. In addition, two last operas (Coriolano and Masenzio), which are clearly attributed to him, are lost, as well as twelve other operas that have been attributed to him, though the music is lost and attribution impossible to prove.
In addition to operas, Cavalli wrote settings of the Magnificat in the grand Venetian polychoral style, settings of the Marian antiphons, other sacred music in a more conservative manner – notably a Requiem Mass in eight parts, probably intended for his own funeral – and some instrumental music.

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Richardo Rognono

Press

A highly successful and very musical debut album of the young ensemble L'Estro Orfeo, which specializes in chamber music of the Baroque.
Klassik.com, 19-11-2018

Altri canti d’amor was recorded in the Church of St. John the Baptist de Secadura in Cantabria, Spain. Bright and immediate, the sound carries just a hint of the lively acoustic of the space without losing clarity or definition.
Early Music America, 30-4-2018

With so much exquisite playing and rare and magical music my only other gripe, and it is a significant one I feel, is that the disc weighs in at well less than the usually obligatory hour. The programme is however beautifully planned and recorded in detail and with atmosphere in a beautiful medieval church in northern Spain.
Music Web International, 31-1-2018

This is the ensemble’s debut recording. More, please!
Classic a la carte, 30-1-2018

This is the ensemble’s debut recording. More, please!
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, 02-1-2018

The program unites instrumental and vocal compositions around the theme 'love'. But the human voice has been replaced by an instrument.
Luister, 01-12-2017

This is a CD with two pleasant surprises. One is a track from undervalued Renaissance composer, Barbara Strozzi. The other is a contemporary set of divisions on a Renaissance theme composed by the present-day artistic director of the CD, Leonor de Lera.
The Whole Note, 28-11-2017

I can't stop praising the young generation of ancient music Spanish musicians [...] They got talent, imagination and, most of all, they got the will to make great things. A confirmation comes from Madrid violinist Leonor de Lera. De Lera's collaborators are her usual partners, a mix of Spaniards (the excellent tiorbist Josep Maria Martì and the no less excellent harpsichordist Javier Nunez) and latin-americans (the outstanding cornet player from Guatemala Josué Meléndez, the expert gambist from Costa Rica Rodney Prada and the Argentinian violinist Lucìa Giraudo). The outcome of this work overtakes any expectation, since L'Estro d'Orfeo places the crossbar very high. Wonderful de Lera in her double role of violin soloist and conductor, although to count on such travelling companions makes things easier.
Disco Exceptional de Scherzo, 27-11-2017

4**** "...instrumental and vocal works transcribed for instruments make up the first CD of the excellent ensemble L'Estro d'Orfeo..."
Classica , 09-11-2017

The performances are recorded in a small baroque church in Cantabria, where the amorous sounds of L'Estro d'Orfeo are being carried on wings by the golden reverberation.
Klassieke Zaken, 29-9-2017

Taking profit from an incredibly good sound recording, the performances of L’Estro d’Orfeo draw the listener right in the center of the music-making. That’s a gripping experience, all the more valuable since the program comprises some unknown pearls. Unfortunately, with only 50 minutes, the CD is rather short.
Pizzicato, 23-9-2017

The compositions on ‘Altri Canti d’Amore’ are sweet and graceful and are truly excellent performed by the L’Estro d’Orfeo sextet.
Music Frames, 19-9-2017

A very nice and elegant CD. Can not be missed!
Stretto, 06-9-2017