The Breathtaking Collective, Liuwe Tamminga & Hana Blažíková - On the Breath of Angels (2021) [Of Digital Download 24/192]

In the 16th and 17th centuries the vast majority of images of cornetto players are depictions angel musicians, often in the company of angelic voices, viols, violins, trombones, organs and harps. Taking this image as a point of departure, Hana Blažíková and I, following the success of our project “Breathtaking”, have developed and recorded a new program around the pairing of the voice and the cornetto. Once again we explore the wonderful way the voice and cornetto can play off of each other in diverse repertoires from the 17th century to the present day.

We return to further explore a couple of the composers from the Breathtaking program, most notably Sigismondo D’India, Giacomo Carissimi, and Alessandro Scarlatti. But we also venture further afield. In the last few decades, a mysterious manscript from around 1600 turned up on the auction circuit. It contains florid sacred monodies and duets of a variety of composers, but mostly by the compiler himself, signed Carlo G… (The rest of his last name is obscured by a smudge.) The music is fascinating for its elaborate ornamentation and its use of instruments. We will perform pieces for two sopranos, in which the cornetto takes the role of the second soprano, and pieces for soprano and violin, in which the elaborate ornamentation of the violin is played on the cornetto and the violin. Once again we will explore opera arias from the last decade of the 17th century, with music of Scarlatti, but also of Giovanni Bononcini.

We have commissioned two new works for our angels project by Ivan Moody and Julian Wachner. Moody is an English conductor, musicologist, composer and Orthodox priest who lives and works in Lisbon. His many works show the influence of Eastern liturgical chant and the Orthodox Church. He has written highly successful works for groups such as the Hilliard Ensemble, Red Byrd, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and many others. Julian Wachner is an American composer, conductor and keyboard player. Since 2011 he has been Director of Music and the Arts at Trinity Wall Street Church in New York City. Though he has written in many genres both sacred and secular, much of his early work was liturgical. He has described his music as lying between the "between the Apollonian world of church music and the academy and the Dionysian world of opera and the stage.” Moody has chosen a liturgical text from the Byzantine rite, partially in Greek: O Archangels and Angels. Wachner, on the other hand, has chosen a gruesomely beautiful poem by the early 20th-century anti-war poet, Rupert Brooke, “The Vision of the Archangels”.

We will bridge the two new works with a wonderful chanson (1886) of Eric Satie called Les Anges. Taking literally the words of the chanson which describes “lutes shivering under the fingers of angels to produce the divine harmony”, we have arranged the piano accompaniment for theorbo, confidant of not having brought harm to the composition. The cornetto will reply with elaborate divisions on an angel text of Palestrina, Angelus Domini descendit.

Tracklist:
1. Veronika Skuplik, The Breathtaking Collective, Matthias Muller, Mieneke van der Velden, Jakob Lindberg, Hana Blažíková, Liuwe Tamminga & Kris Verhelst – Panis angelicus (Toccata e mottetto) (05:01)
2. Hana Blažíková, The Breathtaking Collective, Liuwe Tamminga, Veronika Skuplik, Catherine Aglibut, Matthias Muller, Mieneke van der Velden & Jakob Lindberg – Sicut sponsus matris (03:45)
3. Hana Blažíková, The Breathtaking Collective, Veronika Skuplik & Kris Verhelst – Mater Jerusalem (03:01)
4. Liuwe Tamminga, The Breathtaking Collective & Kris Verhelst – Angelus Domini (Instrumental Version - Diminutions by Bruce Dickey) (06:26)
5. Hana Blažíková, The Breathtaking Collective, Matthias Muller, Mieneke van der Velden & Kris Verhelst – Videte miraculum - Mottetto concertato a 3 (from "Novi concentus ecclesiastici e Liber secundus sacrorum concentuum", 1610) (03:28)
6. Veronika Skuplik, The Breathtaking Collective, Catherine Aglibut, Jakob Lindberg & Kris Verhelst – Sonata a 3 (from "Vespro della beata Vergine", 1656) (06:05)
7. Hana Blažíková, The Breathtaking Collective, Matthias Muller, Jakob Lindberg & Kris Verhelst – O quam suavis (from "Motetti a voce sola de diuersi eccelentissimi autori nouamente stampati, Libro 1", Venezia 1645) (03:53)
8. Hana Blažíková, The Breathtaking Collective, Liuwe Tamminga, Veronika Skuplik, Mieneke van der Velden & Kris Verhelst – The Vision of the Archangels (06:54)
9. Veronika Skuplik, The Breathtaking Collective, Catherine Aglibut, Matthias Muller, Mieneke van der Velden, Jakob Lindberg & Kris Verhelst – Il trionfo di Camilla: Sinfonia (Grave - Presto) (05:18)
10. Hana Blažíková, The Breathtaking Collective, Liuwe Tamminga, Veronika Skuplik, Catherine Aglibut, Mieneke van der Velden & Jakob Lindberg – Il trionfo di Camilla, Act I Scene 2: "Se Ninfa o Dea tu sei" (Prenesto) [Version with Cornetto] (01:54)
11. Hana Blažíková, The Breathtaking Collective, Liuwe Tamminga, Veronika Skuplik, Catherine Aglibut, Mieneke van der Velden & Kris Verhelst – Il trionfo di Camilla, Act III Scene 5: "È pur ver ch’a soffrir" (Camilla) [Version with Cornetto] (02:16)
12. Hana Blažíková, The Breathtaking Collective, Liuwe Tamminga, Veronika Skuplik, Catherine Aglibut, Mieneke van der Velden, Jakob Lindberg & Kris Verhelst – Il trionfo di Camilla, Act III Scene 13: "Tutte armate" (Prenesto) (02:38)
13. Hana Blažíková, The Breathtaking Collective & Jakob Lindberg – 3 Mélodies, IES 33: I. Les anges, "Vêtus de blancs, dans l'azur clair" (Lent) [Version with Theorbo] (02:32)
14. Hana Blažíková, The Breathtaking Collective, Liuwe Tamminga & Mieneke van der Velden – O Archangels and Angels (05:20)
15. Veronika Skuplik, The Breathtaking Collective, Catherine Aglibut, Mieneke van der Velden & Kris Verhelst – Sonata da chiesa in A Major, Op. 6 No. 5: Largo e affetuoso - Adagio - Allegro (from "Sonate da chiesa a due violini Opera Sesta", Venezia 1672) (05:37)
16. Hana Blažíková, The Breathtaking Collective, Liuwe Tamminga, Mieneke van der Velden & Kris Verhelst – Comodo Antonino: "Coronato di lauri" (Antonino) (02:12)
17. Hana Blažíková, The Breathtaking Collective, Liuwe Tamminga, Mieneke van der Velden & Jakob Lindberg – Comodo Antonino: "Cara e dolce rimembranza" (Antonino) (03:13)
18. Hana Blažíková, The Breathtaking Collective, Liuwe Tamminga, Veronika Skuplik, Catherine Aglibut, Mieneke van der Velden, Jakob Lindberg & Kris Verhelst – Comodo Antonino: "Il desio di vendicarmi" (Pompeiano) [Version with Cornetto and Violin] (02:51)


Thanks to the Original customer!