L’Echo du Danube by Sofia Diniz

Sofia Diniz

L’Echo du Danube

Price: € 22.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917296822
Catnr: CC 72968
Release date: 05 January 2024
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2 CD	€ 22.95	Preorder

Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917296822

Catalogue number
CC 72968

Release date
05 January 2024

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

L’Echo du Danube is the poetic title given by Johann Schenck to his collection of pieces for viola da gamba, first published around 1703/04 as Opus 9 in Amsterdam by Estienne Roger — the most important music printer at the time. L’Echo du Danube is Schenk’s last complete work to survive, a fact that gives these pieces the weight of a “musical testament. It comprises six sonatas for solo viol: the first two sonatas with basso continuo accompaniment, the next two also with basso continuo but this time ad libitum (optional), and the two last ones for viola da gamba without any accompaniment. Although Marin Marais already had published his first book of Pièces de Viole in 1686 and the flourishing English viol tradition was well known in Northern Europe, Schenk’s approach to the instrument is an important step in the process of creating an independent repertoire, specifically written for the viol by composers who were themselves performers and masters of its idiomatic idiosyncrasies. Although Schenck fully explores the potential of the viol as a melodic instrument, he clearly favoured, its possibilities of playing chords, in a manner strongly influenced by lute playing and repertoire: he sought to show the viol as an instrument that is harmonically independent, appropriate for polyphonic writing besides its talent for melodic singing. Hence his writing in such a distinctive way: abundantly using chords and double stops; continually alternating between the bass and the high register; and striving for an effective combination of luxurious harmony and depth of sound, without losing sight of the delicately cantabile voice of the viola.

L'Echo du Danube ist der poetische Titel, den Johann Schenck seiner Sammlung von Stücken für Viola da Gamba gegeben hat, die erstmals um 1703/04 als Opus 9 in Amsterdam bei Estienne Roger - dem bedeutendsten Notendrucker der damaligen Zeit - veröffentlicht wurden. L'Echo du Danube ist das letzte vollständige Werk Schencks, das überlebt hat, eine Tatsache, die diesen Stücken das Gewicht eines "musikalischen Testaments" verleiht. Es umfasst sechs Sonaten für Gambe solo: die ersten beiden Sonaten mit Basso continuo-Begleitung, die nächsten beiden ebenfalls mit Basso continuo, aber diesmal ad libitum (fakultativ), und die beiden letzten für Viola da Gamba ohne jegliche Begleitung. Obwohl Marin Marais bereits 1686 sein erstes Buch mit Pièces de Viole veröffentlicht hatte und die blühende englische Gamben-Tradition in Nordeuropa gut bekannt war, ist Schencks Herangehensweise an das Instrument ein wichtiger Schritt im Prozess der Schaffung eines unabhängigen Repertoires, das speziell für die Gambe von Komponisten geschrieben wurde, die selbst Interpreten waren und ihre idiomatischen Eigenheiten beherrschten. Obwohl Schenck das Potenzial der Gambe als Melodieinstrument voll ausschöpft, bevorzugt er eindeutig ihre Möglichkeiten, Akkorde zu spielen, und zwar in einer Weise, die stark vom Lautenspiel und -repertoire beeinflusst ist: Er versucht, die Gambe als ein harmonisch unabhängiges Instrument zu zeigen, das neben seiner Begabung für den melodischen Gesang auch für mehrstimmiges Schreiben geeignet ist. Deshalb schrieb er so unverwechselbar: Er verwendete reichlich Akkorde und Doppelgriffe, wechselte ständig zwischen Bass- und Hochlage und strebte nach einer effektiven Kombination von üppiger Harmonie und Klangtiefe, ohne dabei die zarte, kantable Stimme der Bratsche aus den Augen zu verlieren.

Artist(s)

Sofia Diniz (viola da gamba)

Portuguese born, Sofia Diniz studied music and cello in Lisbon and later specialized in historical performance practice in Cologne, Germany with Rainer Zipperling (baroque cello and viola da gamba), in Den Haag, Netherlands with Wieland Kuijken and Philippe Pierlot (viola da gamba) and Brussels, Belgium with Philippe Pierlot. She works as a freelance gamba player throughout Europe and beyond, playing as a soloist and with several early music ensembles and orchestras such as The Spirit of Gambo (Freek Bortslap), Il Fondamento (Paul Dombrecht), Ricercar Consort (Philippe Pierlot), Collegium Vocale Gent (Philippe Herreweghe), Hespèrion XXI (Jordi Savall), Concerto Campestre (Pedro Castro), Ludovice Ensemble (Fernando Miguel Jalôto), Sete Lágrimas (Filipe Faria e Sérgio Peixoto) or Concerto Köln. Sofia Diniz also has her own...

She works as a freelance gamba player throughout Europe and beyond, playing as a soloist and with several early music ensembles and orchestras such as The Spirit of Gambo (Freek Bortslap), Il Fondamento (Paul Dombrecht), Ricercar Consort (Philippe Pierlot), Collegium Vocale Gent (Philippe Herreweghe), Hespèrion XXI (Jordi Savall), Concerto Campestre (Pedro Castro), Ludovice Ensemble (Fernando Miguel Jalôto), Sete Lágrimas (Filipe Faria e Sérgio Peixoto) or Concerto Köln. Sofia Diniz also has her own chamber music group, Ensemble ConTrastes, which dedicates to the performance of music from the baroque period written for or with viola da gamba.

Sofia Diniz has played in numerous recordings with Sete Lágrimas for the label MU, for MIRARE with Ricercar Consort (Philippe Pierlot), for AliaVox with Hespèrion XXI (Jordi Savall), for Harmonia Mundi with Collegium Vocale Gent and Concerto Palatino (Philippe Herreweghe), and some live recordings, like of Purcells Dido and Aeneas for ARTE with Ricercar Consort and Collegium Vocale Gent (Philippe Pierlot).

Sofia Diniz is based in Cologne, Germany, and she plays a seven string viol by François Bodart (2007), copy of a Barak Norman model (London 1700), a seven string copy of a Collichon (Paris ca. 1680) by Henner Harders (2001), and a treble viol by François Danger (2000).

Sofia Diniz publishes her first solo recording La Lyre d’Apollon, the first integral recording of Jacques Morel’s first book of Suites for viola da gamba (1709) with the German label Conditura Records. Sofia Diniz collaborated with Edition Güntersberg (Günter and Leonora von Zadow) for the publishing of the modern edition of Jacques Morel’s four Suites for Viola da Gamba, already available to the public.

Sofia Diniz

L’Echo du Danube

About the album

Artist(s)

Sofia Diniz (viola da gamba)

Torben Klaes (viola da gamba)

Fernando Miguel Jalôto (harpsichord)

Composer(s)

Johann Schenck

Press

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