Saturday 1 d'octubre, 7:30 pm
xavier sabata & vespres d'arnadí
invisibili
Arias and symphonies of invisibilized baroque composers
XAVIER SABATA, countertenor
VESPRES D'ARNADÍ,
Dani Espasa, harpsichord and direction
Pere Saragossa, oboe
Farran Sylvan James, solo violin
Luca Giardini, violin
Oriol Algueró, violin
Kathleen Leidig, violin
Cecilia Clares, violin
Natan Paruzel, viola
Oleguer Aymamí, cello
Mario Lizarde, violone
Rafael Bonavita, theorbo and baroque guitar
PROGRAMME
Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751), Il nascimento dell'Aurora (Venice, c.1710)
"With the most sonorous harp"
Giovanni Bononcini (1670-1747), Astianatte (London, 1727)
"Render mi vuole"
Antonio Lotti (1667-1740), Ascanio (Dresden, 1718)
symphony
Giovanni Alberto Ristori (1692-1753), Le fate (Dresden, 1736)
"Bellezze adorate"
Giovanni Porta (c.1671-1755), Farnace (Bologna, 1731)
"Non semper gradina
Francesco Gasparini (1661-1727), The Oracle of Fate (Vienna, 1709)
"Who I write to you or nome amato"
Nicola Porpora (1686-1768), Deianira, Ercole and Iole (Naples, 1711)
"Scuote la chioma d'oro"
Francesco Mancini (1672-1737), Alessandro il Grande in Sidone (Naples, 1706)
symphony
Geminiano Giacomelli (1692-1740), Gianguir (Venice, 1729)
"My par to feel the beauty"
Domenico Natale Sarro (1679-1744), Siroe, king of Persia (Naples, 1726)
"Cold in every vein"
NOTES to the PROGRAMME
Some synonyms for invisible: imperceptible, hidden, hidden, covered...
inVISIBILI is a double tribute:
Firstly, to all those composers whose relevance and presence has been hidden, covered, hidden... by complex processes during the development of the history of music.
And then, to all those extraordinary musicians whose presence is hidden, covered, hidden, goes unnoticed by the homogeneous nature of an orchestra.
This recital is made up of a collection of arias that focus on extraordinary composers and operas - performed very rarely - and on the extraordinary musicians who accompany me, since most of the arias have a solo instrument, an obbligato .
Xavier Sabata
The Catalan countertenor Xavier Sabata trained as an actor at the Barcelona Theater Institute before studying singing at the ESMUC in Barcelona and the Musikhochschule in Karlsruhe. Sabata's repertoire ranges from Cavalli and Monterverdi, through the heroes of serious baroque opera, to contemporary works. He has performed with formations such as Els Arts Florissants, Europa Galant, Collegium 1704, the Baroque Orchestra of Venice. He has performed in prestigious venues around the world such as Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, London's Barbican Center and Wigmore Hall, New York's Lincoln Center, Washington DC's Kennedy Center and Moscow's Tchaikovsky Hall. He was awarded the Opera Actual Award in 2013. His extensive discography under major labels such as Virgin Classics/EMI, Decca, Harmonia Mundi Iberica and Vaig apartar includes recordings of operas by Handel, Faramondo, Arminio, Ottone and other award-winning works such as Alessandro and Tamerlane.
VESPRES D'ARNAdí
It is a baroque orchestra created in 2005 by Dani Espasa and Pere Saragossa to offer versions full of emotion, freshness and spontaneity, using historical instruments and criteria. Its name recalls the concerts that, in the 18th century, were usually offered at EVENINGS as a dessert at distinguished noble and bourgeois dinners. Pumpkin, sugar and almonds are the ingredients of ARNADÍ, one of the oldest desserts in the Valencian Country.
With an intense concert activity, the ensemble performs in important halls and festivals in Europe such as Peralada, Barcelona, Seville, Santander, Madrid, London, Halle, Prague and Ostrava, among others.
Vespres d'Arnadí has the recording works Pièces de Simphonie by Charles Desmazures, Missa in D Major by Josep Mir i Llussà and Anna Maria Strada, Handel's favorite, all three with the Musiepoka label. The last of the albums is entitled L'Alessandro amante, and it stars countertenor Xavier Sabata and was released on the Aparté label.
In addition to the singers mentioned, the orchestra collaborates with prestigious soloists, such as the mezzo-sopranos Vivica Genaux, Mary Ellen Nesi and Marta Infante; the sopranos Núria Rial, María Hinojosa, Sunhae Im and Marie Lys; contraltos Hilary Summers and Sonia Prina; and the tenors Emiliano González Toro and Juan Sancho, to name a few examples.
Vespres d'Arnadí receives aid from the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Ramon Llull Institute.
Saturday, October 9, 7pm
Lucentum XVI
Francesc de Borja
Music for the 450th anniversary of his death
Pere Saragossa, shawms and direction
Quiteria Muñoz, soprano; Carla Sanmartín, alto
Jesus Navarro, tenor; Giorgio Celenza, bass
Carlos García-Bernalt, organ
Xavier Boïls, cornetto; Vicent Osca, sackbut; Antoni Lloret, shawms;
Antoni Llofriw, dulzians; Fernando Fernández, lute; Facundo San Blas, percussion
PROGRAMme
francesc de borja
· La Bataille, by Clément Janequin (c.1485-1558), of the Dixiéme livre (Amberes, 1545) of Tielman Susato
· Rondeau «Ce jour», by Guillaume Dufay (c.1397-1474)
· Ave Maris Stella, by G. Dufay / Booksongs of Montecassino (c.1480)
· Miserere Nostri – Vexilla Regis, C. Montecassino
· El cervel mi fa, anonymous of the Booksong of Palacio (c. 1500)
· Susanne un jour, d’Orlando de Lassus (1532-1594)
· Credo in unum Deum of the Mass about Susanne un jour, by Orlando de Lassus.
· Makam Muhayyer «Kúme» usules Düyek Acemler, Turkish war march.
· Passio Domini nostri Iesu Christi secundum Mattheum*, by Jan Nasco (c.1510–1561) and Joan Baptista Comes (c.1582-1643)
*Named as «Passion de Valencia» by Joan Baptista Comes (Escorial Monastery Archive, c.1607)
ABOUT THE GROUP
lucentum xvi
Group of ministers (instrument players) led by Pere Saragossa , created to interpret and spread the rich and varied musical repertoire of the Renaissance. Bands of wind instruments, with the name alta capella , spread throughout cities and towns in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. The main function of the ministers within the liturgy was to accompany the vocal music, dubbing the voices. In the civil sphere, the high chapel was in charge of performing dances, popular songs, and love pieces and epics of courtly and popular origin.
Lucentum XVI's performances include those performed in Bari and Molfetta as part of the Anima mea de la Puglia Festival (Italy), Musical Vespers of the Monastery of Pedralbes, Festival of Ancient Music of the Pyrenees, Serenades Festival of the University of Valencia, Music Festival Antiga de Morella, Clásicos en la Frontera a la Ribagorça, Festival of Contemplative Music of Santiago de Compostela, Festival of Sacred Music of Benicàssim, Festival of Ancient and Baroque Music of Peñíscola.
In 2021 they published their first record work with the title " El Cantoral del Monestir de Santa Maria de la Murta d'Alzira ", a disc of which the specialized critic has said "The execution is absolutely exquisite, full of balance in the excellent voices and the instruments (...). The album is a gem, both for the interpretation and for the unprecedented and beautiful polyphony and for the documentation.» (Manuel de Lara Ruiz, Scherzo Magazine, June 2021).
Programme notes
francesc de borja
This programme comemorates the 450th anniversary of the death of Francesc de Borja i Aragó ( Gandia 1510- Roma 1572) who was Duke of Gandia, Lieutenant of Catalunya, later joining the Jesuit order being proclaimed a Saint in 1671, for which reason the Catholic church is now celebrating the 350th anniversary of this fact.
In this concert we present the premiere in modern times , of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew, a work which Ferran d'Aragó, viceroy of Valencia and Duke of Calabria commisioned from the Flemish composer, Jan Nasco ( 1510-1561) to give as a gift to the Cathedral of Valencia , being known at the time as the Passion of Valencia.
This work is part of the repertoire of the choir of the monastery of Murta d'Alzira, a musical body to which our group has dedicated the first of their albums released earlier this year.
The representation or interpretation of the Passion according to Matthew , where the gospel of this prophet is narrated, took place in the Roman Catholic liturgy during the Mass of Palm Sunday (the following Tuesday was the gospel of Saint Mark, on Wednesday, the gospel of Saint Luke and on Good Friday the gospel of Saint John.).
The main characters of the Passion are Christ, the Evangelist narrator and the crowd, the so-called “mob” played by the whole congregation.
The score for the crowd has not been found in the Monastery of Alzira , so it could have been performed in plain singing or in a now lost poliphony.
But some parts sung by the crowd appear in poliphony for 6 voices originally written by the Valencian Joan Baptista Comes ( chapel master in the Cathedral of Valencia, successor to Josep Prades) which is in the monastery of San Lorenzo d'El Escorial, a Jerónimo monastery, like that of Alzira. And the interventions of the mob, but for 4 voices, appear in a document of 1561 signed by Jan Nasco himself.
Since the Second Vatican Council, held between 1959 and 1962 the singing of the Latin Passion has been replaced in almost all diocese by the reading of the Passion in the vernacular language ( except in our territory where our own language is not used.).
Together with this great work we present among others pieces from the Cancionero de Palacio , the palace of Queen Isabel of Castilla ( the Catholic) and king Ferdinand of Aragón, and the Songbook of Montecasino ( Naples) a collection written in the 1480s which accompanied Alfons and Roderic de Borja to Rome where they became Popes with the names Calixtus lll and Alexander Vl.
