On the rear inlay of this disc we read "On the Occasion of the
Celebration for Firenze Capitale 1865-2015". This refers to Florence
becoming the capital of the Kingdom of Italy in 1865, a status which was to
last only six years. This disc documents four centuries of organ music in
Florence, mostly by composers who were in one way or another connected to
the city. The term 'organ music' has to be taken with a grain
of salt: the earliest pieces were not specifically intended for a keyboard
instrument and the compositions by Frescobaldi are for a keyboard instrument
in general, not specifically the organ.
During the Renaissance period Florence was under the rule of the Medici
dynasty. They were one of the most powerful families of the time, and that
was expressed by the presence of some of the finest performers and
composers. One of the latter was Heinrich Isaac who entered the service of
Lorenzo de' Medici, known as 'Il Magnifico', in 1485.
Palle, palle - which means "balls, balls" - is a textless
polyphonic piece written as a homage to the coat of arms of the Medici. The
two pieces by Malvezzi and Cavalieri are taken from the
Intermedi
for Girolamo Bargagli's
La pellegrina which were part of the
celebrations at the occasion of the marriage of Ferdinando I and Christine
of Lorraine. They are performed here in keyboard transcriptions from the
1590s. Cavalieri's piece has become known as
Ballo del
Granduca and
Aria di Fiorenza and has been the subject of
variations by several composers, such as Sweelinck and Frescobaldi.
The latter is represented by three pieces from collections published in
1627 and 1637 respectively. He was organist in Florence from 1628 to 1634.
The
canzona was a form which had its roots in vocal music; the term
is derived from
cantare (to sing) and has its pendant in the French
word
chanson. It is divided into various contrasting sections. The
other two pieces are sets of variations. A popular musical form at the time
was the
basso ostinato, a repetition of a pattern of notes in the
bass as the foundation of a series of variations. The
passacaglia
was one of the most frequently-used, and here we hear an anonymous piece
with remarkable harmonic progressions and chromatic episodes.
Giovanni Maria Casini was a Florentine priest and pupil of Francesco
Nigetti, himself a pupil of Frescobaldi. In 1676 he became second organist,
and in 1685 first organist of Florence Cathedral. He was considered the
greatest organist of his time in Italy. In 1714 he published a collection of
twelve
Pensieri for organ, pieces dominated by counterpoint and
divided into various movements with thematically related subjects. The first
half of the programme is concluded with three pieces by Francesco Feroci who
was a pupil of Casini and succeeded him as first organist of Florence
Cathedral in 1719. Although he gave more attention to melody in his
compositions the
Fugue in C includes imitative polyphony. In the
Elevazione in D he makes use of chromaticism.
The second half shows a strong change in the style of organ music,
including compositions for the liturgy. Luigi Cherubini's
Sonata
per l'organo a cilindro was written for a mechanical organ,
known in German as
Flötenuhr. It dates from 1805 and was
specifically written for the mechanical organ of Baron Peter von Braun in
Vienna. Its character is comparable with the pieces which his contemporary
Mozart wrote for such instruments.
It is especially in the liturgical pieces that the influence of opera
makes itself felt. Some have a rather pathetic character, others are
virtuosic and exploit the dynamics of the organ to the full, either through
the addition or removal of registers or - as in this recording - the change
of manual. The six anonymous pieces are taken from two manuscripts which are
preserved in the archive of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore. They were
probably written in the first decades of the 19th century. Vincenzo Bellini
is first and foremost known as an opera composer. He wrote only a handful of
pieces for keyboard, and one for organ, the
Sonata in G. The
Elevazione included in this programme is from another manuscript in
which it is attributed to him. The two pieces by Luigi Ferdinando Casamorata
are in the same style. He was a music critic and composer, was involved in
politics and founded the Istituto Musicale - later the conservatory - in
1859. It is interesting to note that he was critical of modern tendencies in
religious music and criticized Rossini's
Stabat mater. At
the same time the
Elevazione and
Comunione played here are
not different from what we have heard in the previous tracks.
It is in the concluding two pieces by Gioacchino Maglioni that we note a
change in the approach to liturgical music. He was organist of Florence
Cathedral, teacher at the conservatory and author of a treatise on organ
playing. His music is more restrained and looks back at the past. In his
liner-notes Gabriele Giacomelli points out that these pieces reflect the
ideals which would later be propagated by the Cecilian movement: liturgical
music should be cleared from profane and especially operatic elements. It
was this movement which proclaimed Palestrina as the ideal of liturgical
music.
If one listens to the operatic-influenced organ pieces in this programme
one can easily understand the longing for a reform of liturgical music. I
find it hard to take the works of especially Bellini and Casamorata
seriously. I can imagine that many organ aficionados will find them quite
hard to swallow, even if they love 19th-century music. However, this disc is
interesting from a historical point of view as it is an eloquent
demonstration of the stylistic changes in organ music in Italy. Giacomelli
is an excellent interpreter who knows how to reveal the features of the
selected pieces. He uses two different organs: in the first half he plays an
organ from the mid-16th century, which was revised in 1773. It is in
meantone temperature which is particularly useful to bring out the harmonic
peculiarities in the pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries. The second
half is played on an organ by the Serassi brothers, a prominent firm of
organ builders from Bologna. It dates from 1864 and has a symphonic
character. The various stops are effectively used to realise the contrasts
in dynamics and colours in the 19th-century repertoire. The comprehensive
liner-notes by Giacomelli put the pieces into their historical
perspective.
Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen
Track listingHeinrich ISAAC
(c.1450-1517)
Palle palle [2:19]
Cristofano MALVEZZI (1547-1599)
Dal vago e bel sereno [1:24]
Emilio DE' CAVALIERI (c.1550-1602)
O che nuovo miracolo [1:22]
Girolamo FRESCOBALDI (1583-1643)
Aria detta la Frescobalda [4:47]
Canzona IV [4:00]
Capriccio sopra l'Aria di Ruggiero [3:58]
anon (late 17th century)
Passagagli in g minor [4:06]
Giovanni Maria CASINI (1652-1719)
Pensiero XII [5:29]
Francesco FEROCI (1673-1750)
Elevazione in D [2:22]
Pastorale meza bigia fatta apposta per la Gigia [5:05]
Fugue in C [2:36]
Luigi CHERUBINI (1760-1840)
Sonata per l'organo a cilindro [3:48]
anon (1st half 19th century)
Offertorio in D [2:59]
Elevazione in c minor [3:45]
Postcommunio in G [2:40]
Offertorio in C [2:08]
Elevazione in B flat [5:00]
Toccata per il Deo Gratias in D [1:35]
Vincenzo BELLINI (1801-1835) (attr)
Elevazione [3:34]
Luigi Ferdinando CASAMORATA (1807-1881)
Elevazione [4:53]
Comunione [5:13]
Gioacchino MAGLIONI (1814-1888)
Corale No. 12 Preghiera in e minor [1:57]
Corale No. 5 in F [3:53]
