Girolamo Dalla Casa: Il Secondo Libro dei Madrigali a Cinque Voci con i Passaggi

Anonymous (Composer), Girolamo della Casa (Composer), Giovanni Battista Della Gostena (Composer), Il Terzo Suono (Performer), Adriano Dallape (Performer), Elena Cecchi Fedi (Performer), Laura Fabris (Performer), Gian Paolo Fagotto (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Il Terzo Suono, Adriano Dallape, Elena Cecchi Fedi, Laura Fabris, Gian Paolo Fagotto
• Composer: Anonymous, Girolamo della Casa, Giovanni Battista Della Gostena
• Audio CD (July 29, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Arts Music
• ASIN: B00005B829
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #566,000 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Giordano's Pick of the Month, April 27, 2009

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Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Girolamo Dalla Casa: Il Secondo Libro dei Madrigali a Cinque Voci con i Passaggi (Audio CD)

Among cornettists, violinists, gambists, and other players of late Renaissance instruments, Girolamo dalla Casa (1530-1601) is a familiar name, more famous, dare I say, than John Lennon of the Beatles. His 'textbook' on playing diminutions -- virtuosic flourishes of fast notes dividing the pitches of a melodic line into intricate, semi-improvisatory passagi -- titled "I Vero Modo di Diminuir con Tutte le sorti di Stromenti (1584), is the exercise book for every serious performer of Monteverdi, Gabrieli, etc. I myself turn to it for practice sessions at least once a week. Dalla Casa himself was apparently a formidable cornettist, employed by the civic authorities of Venice to perform frequent concerts from the galleries of San Marco. Modern cornettists Bruce Dickey and Doron Sherwin have both recorded showy CDs featuring 'passagi' From "Il Vero Modo." The notes that come with this CD, written by Paolo Fagotto, discuss the historic importance of 'division' playing in the evolution of Baroque and later styles with considerable insight and clarity.

Jean Tubery plays the cornetto on this CD, and I've never heard more elegant and polished playing, but the big surprise here is the quality of dalla Casa's five-part madrigals. "Il Vero Modo" uses madrigals by other composers as 'launching pads' for the diminutions, which are almost obsessively flamboyant. In his "Secondo Libro de Madrigali", dalla Casa balances his flights of virtuosity with solid and restrained passages of polyphony, with subtle attention to the expressive qualities of the texts being sung. Dalla Casa's madrigals are less adventuresome in terms of harmony and dissonance than those of the Ferrarese and Mantuan composers like Marenzio and Gesualdo, but they are if anything more progressive in structure, more premonitory of the shapes that music would take in the 17th C. They are also decidedly less morose and tormented; lovers must have had more pleasure for their efforts in the Veneto! In every way, these are very fine madrigals and dalla Casa ranks among the best in the genre.

Besides Tubery, the instrumentalists on this CD include Vittorio Ghielmi on the rare viola bastarda, Francesco Tapella on lute, and Adriano Dallapè on organetto/harpsichord. they all get their chance to dazzle with passagi. The singers of Il Terzo Suono -- Elena Cecchi Fedi and Laura Fabris, sporanos; Roberto Balconi, alto; Gain Paolo Fagotto, tenor; and Antonio Abete, bass -- have two tasks here, the ensemble polyphony of the madrigals and the acrobatic soloist singing of the passagi. They are splendid at both, the sopranos especially proving that their voices can do anything the hottest cornetto can do. The 24 bit-96 kHz recording technology deserves some plaudits also; play this CD in the next room and you'll swear your house has become a studio.

This is Giordano's "must buy" CD for April, 2009. You'll thank me for it.

5.0 out of 5 stars a voice teacher and early music fan, June 26, 2011

By 

George Peabody "Ariel" (U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Girolamo Dalla Casa: Il Secondo Libro dei Madrigali a Cinque Voci con i Passaggi (Audio CD)

NINE PERFORMERS PROVIDE ONE SOLUTION TO DALLA CASA'S DIMINUTION!

Giolamo Dalla Casa (died 1601) was an Italian composer, virtuoso cornetist and writer of the late Renaissance. He was a member of the Venetian school, and was probably more famous and influential as a performer than as a composer. He, along with his brothers, Giovanni and Nicolo, were hired by St. Marks in Venice as the first permanent instrumental ensemble. Prior to listening to this recording I was not aware of his performing ability on the cornet and was somewhat taken aback by the extensive use of the the cornet throughout this recording. But I enjoyed hearing it especially as played by Jean Tubery who has a great sound as well as an excellent technlique.

Two books of madrigals and one book of motets survive from his compositional output. More important, however, is his two-part treatise (1584) on ornamentation(diminution) which gives clear and precise examples of ornamentation as it was practised in singing and playing motets and madrigals at the time. From this treatise it is clear that polyphonic works were usually performed unadorned, but works in a more homophonic style were embellished with ornaments, few of which appear in the actual noted music.

Thus the responsibility for a skillful and stylistically correct performance rests upon the individual soloist. Fortunately today we have some very fine musicians and interpreters who are historically informed, not the least of which are the five singers and four instrumentalists featured on this excellent recording.

These madrigals demonstrate perfectly the art of diminution(con i passaggi): musical note sequences that appear in the place of higher note values(sometimes less, sometimes more). They are often to be played or sung very fast and require the highest degree of virtuosity, demanding great skill and remarkable speed. Della Casa was master of this art form and realized that Passaggi were only effective when they were set in an overall simple musical mesh before a neutral backing of slow and sustained chords.

The performers on this disc are masters of this art form. I was particularly impressed by Tubery's (cornet) delvery and also that of Roberto Balconi (countertenor). But all were quite impressive! The five singers are: E. Fedi & L. Fabris (sopranos), R. Balconi (countertenor), G.P. Fagotto (tenor & conductor) and A. Abete, bass., fine singers all with much experience in this genre.

The four outstanding instrumentalists are: J.Tubery cornet; V. Ghielmi, viola bastarda & basso di viola; F.Tapella, lute & Theorbo; A. Dallape, organ & harpsichord.

So my musical life has become further enriched by Dalla Casa and IL Terzo Suono. The disc has a booklet with pertinent information in English, French, German and Italian. The libretto which is in Italian is translated only in French.

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE : "The quality of singing and playing is quite high and is captured in excellent sound...An important contribution to the recorded literature of the madrigal."