Gioele Gusberti, Claudio Frigerio & Maria Jovanovic
Release Date: 04 June 2021
Label: Urania Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 8051773570704
Genres: Classical Chamber Music
Description
Domenico Silvio Passionei (1682 - 1761), was a prominent figure in the Italian church during the 18th Century, lauded for his many accomplishments as a churchman, diplomat, antiquary, man of letters and bibliophile. Strangely, however, his not inconsiderable achievement as a musician disappeared entirely from the historical record after his death. Passionei conceived these cello sonatas with the noble aim of amusement and as it is for us to enjoy his rhetoric and gain more knowledge from it. The artists on the album have chosen eight of the twelve Sonatas to represent Passionei's output for the cello.
The violoncello originated in the second half of the seventeenth century in Bologna and its neighbouring territories as a small version of the ordinary bass violin (violone), from which it was distinguished by having covered strings. It was the ideal instrument for agile, soloistic performance, although it very quickly accommodated itself to all roles, prominent or not, that the bass instrument of the violin family could be expected to perform.
In structural terms, Passionei's sonatas generally conform to the model describable as 'neo-Corellian', which was the dominant one for Italian sonatas written between 1700 and 1720. This comprises four movements grouped as two pairs, each of which is configured Slow–Fast as regards tempo. Only two of Passionei's sonatas deviate from this pattern: no. 4, which imitates a French-style suite by having six movements, and no. 8, which has only three movements. A pleasing feature of the sonatas is their embrace of advanced instrumental technique. There is much writing in the tenor register, plentiful use of rapid passage-work and a prodigal use of multiple stopping (most notably, at the opening of the tenth sonata, with its rasping triple and quadruple stops). If anything, Passionei is 'appassionato' to excess!
Tracklisting
Sviatoslav Richter, Philharmonia Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan
Luigi Chiarizia
Claudio Ronco & Emanuel Vozza
Ensemble Mark Rothko
Furiosi Affetti Ensemble, Lorenzo Gugole, Giorgio Bottiglion
Elena Suliotis, Mario Del Monaco, Fiorenza Cossotto, Orchestra and Coro dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia di Roma, Silvio Varviso
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Francesco Pasqualotto
Narratio Quartet
Beau Soir Trio
Martin Rummel, Stefan Stroissnig
Hanspeter Oggier; Marina Vasilyeva
Antje Weithaas, Denes Varjon
Piano Duo Scholtes & Janssens
Matteo Cicchitti, Musica Elegentia
Ensemble Agamemnon, Francois Cardey
