Cantar alla Viola
Nadine Balbeisi – soprano
Fernando Marín – viola da gamba
Label – Davinci Classics
Nadine Balbeisi
Discography
A Musical Tour, from Renaissance to Baroque 20 Years of Cantar alla Viola
Cantar alla Viola
Nadine Balbeisi – soprano
Fernando Marín – bowed vihuelas
Label – Davinci Classics
Celebrating 20 years of Cantar alla Viola with Composers: Antonio de Cabezón, Costanzo Festa, Francesca Caccini, Francesco da Milano, Francisco de Peñalosa, Henry Purcell, Jakob Kremberg, Johann Christoff Ziegler, Juan Blas de Castro, Robert Jones, Settimia Caccini, Tobias Hume, William Corkine.
15th Century Song and the Bowed Vihuela
Cantar alla Viola
Nadine Balbeisi – soprano
Fernando Marín – bowed vihuelas
Label – Davinci Classics
This CD displays the 15th century Song throughout Europe. It encompasses French chançons, Franco-flemish and German polyphony and some of the finest Spanish motets, canciones and villancicos, consisting of three-voice pieces, of which each voice appears in manuscripts written separately. Simple and sweet melodies, used to highlight grand poetry, are intricately woven together creating beautiful miniature polyphonic masterpieces. Most of the tracks on the album are dedicated to Francisco de Peñalosa (1470-1528), one of the most famous Spanish composers of his time, known best for his masses and motets yet an excellent composer of secular songs.
“There are plenty of reasons to recommend the new Cantar alla viola album. On the one hand, it offers an excellent approach to the music that was performed at the dawn of the European Renaissance. In addition, it allows knowing the possibilities posed by the conjunction of the voice and the strings of the vihuela. But, above all, it treats the ear to the restrained and calm beauty of timeless music.” – Pablo Rodríguez Canfranc, Catalunya Press
Segreti Accenti- Italian Renaissance Music
Nominated for International Classical Music wards
Cantar alla Viola
Nadine Balbeisi- Soprano
Fernando Marin- Viella, Vihuelas de arco, Viola da gamba
This CD is dedicated to one of the most esteemed musical practices of the Renaissance: the art of accompanying the voice with the viola da gamba. Cantare alla viola (singing with a viol) is the name for this practice which was quite common at the time. Even Baldassare Castiglione, in his The Book of the Courtier, (Venice, 1528), points out that among all musical practices, the best and most suitable for a perfect courtier was indeed cantare alla viola. He goes on to explain that it makes it possible to appreciate “all the sweetness” that is found in the solo voice. One singer can give more attention to the “fine manner and the melody” as well as offer a certain “grace” to the words that is not possible with many singers.
De rio a Rio – Viola da Samba
Nadine Balbeisi – soprano
Fernando Marín – viola da gamba
Jean Kleeb – clavichord
Viola da Samba, (a wordplay on samba being played on a viola da gamba), is a project creating a bridge between Renaissance and Brazilian popular music. The pure, light sounds of early music instruments blend with the vivacious rhythms and rich harmonies of samba and bossa nova. The subtle timbres and the versatile sounds of the clavichord together with the viola da gamba match perfectly with the spirit of Brazilian music, revealing the connection between the elements (scales, rhythms and temperaments) of popular and early music. The natural gut strings of the viol create a pure and organic sound. This offers a new experience for the world of jazz and bossa. Altogether, Nadine Balbeisi’s delicate and refined voice, Jean Kleeb’s mastery of playing bossa chords on the clavichord and Fernando Marín’s skillful bowing of the viola da gamba create a perfect musical symbiosis.
Missa Brasileira, Jean Kleeb-Latin Mass for choir SATB, soprano solo, cello, percussion and band
Nadine Balbeisi – soprano
Fernando Marín – viola da gamba and cello
Martin Rixen – piano
Frank Höfliger – Double bass
Angela Frontera – Brazilian percussion and drum set
Jean Kleeb – harpsichord, piano and director
The liturgical Mass text of Missa Brasileira is set to typical Brazilian rhythms and styles and builds a bridge between European spiritual choral music and the rhythmic intensity of South America. The blending of harmonies of the Renaissance and Early Baroque with the melodies and rhythms of Indian and Afro-Brazilian music is audible. In addition, popular styles like bossa nova, samba and baião are integrated within sacred choral music.
EACH LOVELY GRACE - William Corkine: The Second Book of Ayres (1612)
Cantar alla Viola
Nadine Balbeisi: soprano
Fernando Marín: viola da gamba, lyra-viol
Charming songs and beautiful Lyra-viol solos flourishing in England’s Golden Age.
RELIQUIE DI ROMA I: Lamentarium Eternal lamenting, extravagant repenting, religious ecstasy… passionate, sensual, macabre and erotic narratives from 17th-century Rome
Diapason d'Or
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
The Vihuela de arco in the reign of Aragon from the XIV-XVI Centuries
Cantar alla Viola
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.
Robert Jones: The Second Booke of Songs and Ayres (1601) Cantar alla Viola
Cantar alla Viola
Nadine Balbeisi: 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.
Blas de Castro CD - Cantar alla Viola
Cantar alla Viola
Nadine Balbeisi: soprano
Fernando Marín: vihuela de arco, lyra-viol
Complete Polyphonic Works von Juan Blas de Castro (1561-1631). 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.
RELIQUIE DI ROMA III: MORTALE, CHE PENSI?
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