The Tactus label has established its name with a strong line in Italian
composers, giving special attention to a number of neglected Baroque
composers. They include Alessandro Besozzi (TC 700202), Giovanni Battista
Martini (TC 701301), Angelo Berardi (TC 630201), and the Italian-Argentine
Domenico Zipoli.
Naples-born Zipoli’s music for organ (TC 682601) has not come my way, but
this disc of his harpsichord works has been a very welcome find. In a fair
world, this recording should make him widely known to music lovers, and even
be a Tactus bestseller.
Still, Zipoli is overlooked by musical dictionaries that date back even
five years — despite some recent releases on K617 and
Hyperion (See a Music Web International (MWI) review of his
Vespers of St Ignacio, on K617). Zipoli took music lessons from
Scarlatti pčre — but fled maestro Alessandro, apparently for being a
horrendous teacher! He then studied under Bernardo Pasquini in Rome, before
becoming a Jesuit in 1716. So say the Tactus notes, as well as that he
travelled with the order to Buenos Aires in 1717, dying of tuberculosis in
Argentina’s second city, Córdoba, in 1726. Other sources (
MWI again) claim he was banished from Rome for having “relations” with
an aristocratic benefactress, and spent years in Seville waiting to be
shipped to Paraguay (akin to being shipped to Switzerland) — dying in
Argentina
before taking holy orders.
Be that as it may, music was apparently integral to the Jesuits’
evangelizing, and Zipoli’s music successfully hustled the faithful into
their flocks. Unfortunately, precious little survives of his later works,
whereas this solo harpsichord collection is from the year before he left
Europe. John Walsh, Handel’s publisher, released an edition in England a few
years after their composition, suggesting attention from very worthy
contemporaries.
This collection is divided into four Canzonas, or suites of movements, and
two Partitas. All are rich in musical ideas, often brimming with charm and
felicity. A certain breeziness in Sergio Vartolo’s playing of the rapid
movements infuses them with a seeming spontaneity and expansiveness. His
phrasing in the less energetic passages is often carefully nuanced to bring
out their delicacy. Intriguingly long melodic elaborations are frequent;
among other pieces, this disc’s lengthy closing Partita is particularly
seductive. Alberto Ginastera composed an arrangement for organ of a Zipoli
Toccata (on
Naxos) decades ago, but my guess is that some day these
inventive suites may be chosen for performance by pianists, or perhaps
certain movements will be heard as encores.
This will appeal to anyone with an ear for the period, or who craves
well-elaborated music out of the mainstream. These works belong to a time
when the language of sonatas, sinfonias, and canzonas was in flux, and when
keyboards were in the early days of being explored for their possibilities
as solo instruments. Even so, Zipoli’s work reveals occasional flashes of
flamboyance.
The booklet to this collection reproduces the frontispiece for the
original edition. This is housed in Bologna’s Museo della Musica alongside
“thousands of other treasures.” What music as fine as Zipoli’s, one wonders,
remains to be unearthed by Bologna’s enterprising Tactus label?
Bert Bailey
