Magnificat, etc : B.Gini / Coro Claudio Monteverdi, La Pifarescha

Francesco Cavalli:

1- MAGNIFICAT a sei voci
(From the collection Messa a 4 Voci, Salmi e Litanie della B. V. by C. Monteverdi, 1650)
2- MAGNIFICAT a otto voci
(From Musiche Sacre, 1656)
3- CANZONA a dieci
(From Musiche Sacre,1656)
4- MAGNIFICAT a otto voci
(From Vespero della Beata Vergine,1675)
5- MAGNIFICAT a otto voci
(From Vespero delle Domeniche,1675)
6- MAGNIFICAT a otto voci
(From Vespero delli Cinque Laudate, 1675)
7- LAETATUS SUM a tre voci
(From Musiche Sacre, 1656)
8- CANZONA a dodici
(From Musiche Sacre, 1656)
9- DIXIT DOMINUS a otto voci
(From Musiche Sacre, 1656)

Conductor & Chorus Master: Bruno Gini
Coro Claudio Monteverdi
Instrumental Ensemble La Pifarescha

The Choir Claudio Monteverdi:
The ”Claudio Monteverdi Choir” of Crema was founded in 1986 by Bruno Gini.The repertoire is mainly made up of Renaissance and Baroque music: in particular, worth of note has been the work on the rediscovery of Pier Francesco Cavalli’s church music.
In April 2007 it has been the first Italian choir invited to sing in Canterbury Cathedral (United Kingdom).
Recently, the ”Monteverdi” has been praised by important critics for its performance in the Giovanni Bottesini’s Opera ”Ero e Leandro”.

The Instrumental Ensemble la Pifarescha:
The creation of the ensemble ”La Pifarescha” originates from the wish of some musicians to recreate the sound and the fascination of the ”High Chapel” - instrumental ensemble made up of wind instruments and often accompanied by percussions - which had a great diffusion in Europe during the Middle Age and in the Renaissance. The musicians - who play particular and rare instruments - make use of multi-instrumentalism and experiment many instrumental combinations: this determines the peculiar, characteristic sound of the ensemble.

Francesco was born in Crema in February 1602 and introduced at a very early age to the study of music by his father.
He took music lessons from Claudio Monteverdi, then maestro di cappella at San Marco. His reputation reached Cardinal Mazarin in Paris, who commissioned him to write a new opera, for the celebrations of the wedding of Louis XIV to Maria Theresa of Austria.

In an essay written in 1931, Henry Prunieres says: ”Without any great effort Cavalli created grand instrumental and vocal frescos which are unequalled, in an easy, always expressive idiom.
No musician of his time possesses Cavalli’s decorative sense of music.”

The Magnificat is the canticle sung by the Virgin Mary during her visit to Elizabeth (Luke 1, 46-55) and has been set, in different styles, by many composers. Cavalli uses this canticle in five different compositions:
Magnificat a sei voci
Magnificat of the Vespro della Beata Vergine
Magnificat of the Vespro delle Domeniche (1675).
Magnificat of the Vespro delli Cinque Laudate
Magnificat of the Musiche sacre

The CD is completed by two vocal Mottetti and two Canzoni for ten and twelve instruments, again from the collection of Musiche sacre of 1656 and wholly attributable to the Venetian tradition of double choirs.

STRONG POINT:
First World complete recording of all Magnificat composed by Cavalli ( Dynamic )