Last weekend of the baroque concerts of the 2017-2018 season.
This time it’s at the Saint Roch Church (this Friday at 8:30 PM and Sunday at 4:30 PM) that the Ensemble directed by Gilbert Bezzina* will perform with a special program, the canzona.
If what is called in music the “baroque age” naturally inherited forms from previous periods, it also innovated significantly from these forms and created its own distinctive “style” by developing original structures and a language that is immediately recognizable.
In Italy, at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, at the birth of baroque, an instrumental form experienced a great development, the canzona. Written for one or more solo instruments of treble or bass, accompanied by the basso continuo, it is composed in a single stretch, alternating slow and fast passages.
These canzonas provide composers like Fontana, Frescobaldi, Castello, or Buonamente the opportunity to demonstrate their virtuosity while leaving room for the inventiveness of soloists in the ornamentation. A little later, Legrenzi, combining elements of the canzona and the sonata, paved the way for the birth of the four-movement sonata form, formalized by Corelli and reinvented by Vivaldi.
Throughout this journey through the history of the Italian sonata, the bows of Gilbert Bezzina and Laura Corolla alternately sing, dialogue, or battle.
In the program:
Giovanni Batista Fontana (died around 1630) Sonata ottava a doi violini
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) Il Primo libro delle canzoni Canzona a basso solo detta La Tromboncina Toccatta per spinettina e violino Canzona decima terza a due canti
Dario Castello (active early 17th c.) Libro secondo in stil moderno Sonata seconda a soprano solo Sonata terza a 2 soprani
Giovanni Battista Buonamente (1642) Quarto libro di varie sonate Ballo del Gran Duca
Giovani Legrenzi (1626-1690) Sonate op. 2 n° 8 La Spilimberga Sonate op. 10 n° 3 La Cetra
Arcangelo Corelli Sonate op. 2 n° 12. Ciaconna
Antonio Vivaldi Sonate op. 1 n° 12 La Follia
