EACH LOVELY GRACE - Cantar alla Viola
William Corkine: The Second Book of Ayres (1612)
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Cantar alla Viola
Nadine Balbesi: soprano Fernando Marín: viola da gamba, lyra-viol Charming songs and beautiful Lyra-viol solos flourishing in England’s Golden Age. Titles: Prelude (1) (Lyra-viol) / Shall a smile/ Fly swift my thoughts/ Pavin (Lyra-viol) (2nd tuning)/ Downe, downe proud minde/ Away, away/ Mounsiers Almaine (Lyra-viol) / Prelude (2) (Lyra-viol)/ Goe heavy thoughts / Almaine (Lyra-viol) (2nd tuning)/ Coranto (2)/ Two Lovers sat lamenting / T’is true, t’is day/ If my Complaints (Lyra-viol)/ Coranto (1)/ Man like a Prophet of ensuing yeeres/ Shall I be with joyes deceived?/ Each lovely grace/ The Punckes delight (Lyra-viol)/ Beware faire Maides/ Come live with me and be my Love (Lyra-viol)/ My deerest Mistrisse/ Walsingham (Lyra-viol)/ As by a fountaine chast Diana sate. “Some, [are] to Sing and Play to the Base-Violl alone.” The songs present a wide variety of moods and colours, some being on the shorter and lighter side, others leaning towards the melancholic. ... The bass viol improvises consonances and polyphonic imitations of the voice for a contextualized interpretation of the songs. The different lyra-viol tunings of the solos provide a richness of octaves and fifths that give colourfully resonant sonorities that fit in nicely with the moods of the songs…. Both instruments have been constructed according to early techniques of viol building and both are strung with natural ram gut… The English texts are presented with original pronunciations based on studies by scholars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. |
RELIQUIE DI ROMA I: Lamentarium
Eternal lamenting, extravagant repenting, religious
ecstasy… passionate, sensual, macabre and erotic narratives
from 17th-century Rome
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ATALANTE
Erin Headley - director Nadine Balbeisi - soprano Theodora Baka - mezzo-soprano Paulina van Laarhoven and Annalisa Pappano - viola da gamba Nora Roll - viola da gamba and Erin Headley - viola da gamba, lirone Kristian Bezuidenhout - harpsichord Siobhán Armstrong - arpa doppia Elizabeth Kenny and Andrew Maginley – chitarrone No such period of adjustment was needed in the case of Balbeisi, since I was already a strong admirer of her from her work with the duo ensemble Cantar alla Viola. Her highly expressive and utterly pure voice is the perfect instrument for this repertory. Her performances on this disc are, in a word, ravishing. MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL Recording Of The Year 2011 “Nadine Balbeisi has a voice of extraordinary purity, flawless in her intonation, perfectly balanced across her entire range and always singing with effortless composure. As the grief-stricken Mary Magdalene or as the angelic observer of the birth of Christ in Pasqualini’s lovely miniature, she is superbly sensitive.“ |
The Vihuela de arco in the reign of Aragon from the XIV-XVI Centuries,
Cantar alla Viola
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Nadine Balbeisi, soprano
Fernando Marín, vihuela de arco The Vihuela de Arco (Bowed Vihuela) created a foundation of musical achievement present in the majority of the artistic manifestations of one of the most illustrious periods in the history of Spain, known as the “Siglo de Oro” or the “Golden Age,” and its music accompanied notable personages as the Archpriest of Hita and Miguel de Cervantes. It is the musical instrument, which most likely, best represented the Reign of Aragón and is considered the ancestor of almost all European chordophones… Titles : 1 Benedicamus XIV (Haec est mater)[Huelgas Codex (s. XIII)] /2 Ave maris stella [Henestrosa/Cabezón (1557)] /3 La España [Diego Ortiz (1553)]/4 Para verme con ventura [Cançoner d'Upsala (1556)] /5 No se puede llamar fe [Juan del Encina (1468-1529) /6 Es la causa bien amar [Juan del Encina] /7 Fabordón del 1er tono llano y Glosado en el tiple [Antonio de Cabezón] /8 Romance de Moriana [Luis de Milán (ca 1500-1561)] /9 O gloriosa domina [Henestrosa/Cabezón] /10 Como puedo yo bivir [Cançoner d'Upsala /11 No soy yo quien veis bivir [Cançoner d'Upsala] /12 Fabordón del 1er tono llano y Glosado en las voces intermedias [Antonio de Cabezón] /13 Mas vale trocar [Juan del Encina] /14 Que todos se passan en flores [Cançoner d'Upsala] /15 Si la noche haze escura [Cançoner d'Upsala] /16 Que es de ti, desconsolado [Cançoner d'Upsala] /17 Benedicamus IX [Huelgas Codex] /18 Pange lingua [Henestrosa/Cabezón] /19 Fabordón del 5o tono llano [Antonio de Cabezón] /20 Un dolor tengo en el alma [Cançoner d'Upsala] /21 Dime Robadora [Cançoner d'Upsala] Recorded: April 2010 Sound Producer and Editor: John Hadden, Label: La Mà de Guido. “…The musicians here relied on several sources that detail exactly how the vihuela is to accompany the voice to produce a historically accurate recording. Most of the pieces are vocal, some sacred, but there are a few solo instrumental pieces as well. These are extremely well done. This is not music for easy listening, though…But this is an excellent release, meticulous- ly put together, and with a lot of historical interest…” |
The Second Booke of Songs and Ayres (1601)
Cantar alla Viola
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Cantar alla Viola
Nadine Balbesi: soprano Fernando Marín: lyra-viol The Second Booke of Songs and Ayres (1601) by Robert Jones is a collection of 21 songs “set out to the Lute and Bass Viol the plain way, or the Bass by tablature after the lyre fashion.” The manuscript includes a part for lyra-viol in bass tablature to accompany one voice, which is the version we have chosen for this interpretation. Owing to the mixed scordatura (different tunings of the open strings) and the sympathetic strings, the lyra-viol accompanies and carries the voice well and sustains the polyphony like an organ. Thus is the polyphony preserved in its complete harmony and magnificence while enabling the beautiful Elizabethan poetry to become the protagonist in this marvelous renaissance portrait. Titles: Dreames and Imaginations/ Fie fie/ Love wing’d my hopes/ Faire women / Who so is tide / Whither runneth my sweet hart / Come sorrow come / Now what is love / Loves God is a boy / Once did I love / My love bound me with a kisse / Arise / Beautie stand further / O how my thoughts doe beat me / Daintie darling / Mee thought this other night / Over these brookes / To sigh and to be sad / My love is neither yoong nor olde / Did ever man / Love is a bable. Sound Producer and Editor: John Hadden, Label: La Mà de Guido. |
Blas de Castro CD - Cantar alla Viola
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Cantar alla Viola
Nadine Balbesi: soprano Fernando Marín: vihuela de arco, lyra-viol The twenty tonos humanos presented in this edition, the only ones to survive from among the over seven hundred lost in the fire of the Reales Alcázares in 1734, are a true jewel of courtesan chamber music from the transitional period between Renaissance and Baroque. The interpretation we have chosen for these precious vocal pieces for three and four voices, with a majority of texts by the close friend of the composer, Lope de Vega, is perfectly attuned to the choice, nature, and the intimate beauty of these pearls from the Spanish Golden Age. The interpretation has transcended mere historical reconstruction, an ambitious undertaking in both the choice of instruments and the art of playing them to accompany song. The vihuela de arco and lira da gamba used for the recording are historic copies, crafted according to the methods of the period, of unique models, made expressly for this type of performance. Built by the master woodworker, Javier Martínez with all the care and patience required of historic design, they come to life in the intricate arrangements of polyphony and vocal harmony, following the ancient fashion of humanistic lira that sets this subtle style of Cantar alla Viola apart from the ordinary. The resulting sound is harmony that combines perfectly with the allegoric allusions of the text, where “white pearls”, “crystal” streams of water, and idyllic “dawns” bring about an experience of pure emotion for the senses which we believe justifies the effort that went into this work, and which we dedicate to all those whose sensibility may draw them to the delicate humour emanating from this fountain of art. Titles: Desde las torres del alma / Del cristal de Mançanares / Estábase el aldeana / Porque alegre venga el Sol / Si tus ojos divinos / Ánsares y Menga / A coronarse de flores / Ya no les pienso pedir / Sale la blanca aurora / Para todos alegres / Si a la fiesta de San Juan / Entre dos álamos verdes / Tus imbidias me hablan / Ojos negros que os miráis / Álamos del soto, adiós / Desiertos campos, árboles sombríos / Tienes niña en tus ojos / Qué hermosa fueras, Belilla / Desata el pardo o(c)tubre / Tan triste vivo en mi aldea. Production and Edition by QUARTZ. |
RELIQUIE DI ROMA III: MORTALE, CHE PENSI?
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ATALANTE
ERIN HEADLEY – director Nadine Balbeisi and Katherine Watson, sopranos Theodora Baka, mezzo-soprano Samuel Boden and Julian Podger, tenors Christian Immler, bass Siobhán Armstrong, triple harp Fredrik Bock, chitarrone Jörg Jacobi, harpsichord Erin Headley, viola da gamba and lirone Bojan Cecic and Milos Valent, violins Atalante’s consort of viols "I have never heard accompanying continuo played so dramatically or for that matter such committed singing in this repertoire. These are dramatized performances. Not only have these singers and players brought this forgotten music to light they are performing it surely as it must have been done four hundred years ago: to move the audience to tears and to bring the story to life. I must single out Baka for praise but do also listen to Nadine Balbeisi in Rossi’s equally passion-ridden Lamento Zaida." „Nadine Balbeisi convincingly personifies Zaida (Rossi).“ |
