Arie e capricci a voce sola

Canihac, Jean-Pierre, Duftschmid, Lorenz, Figueras, Montserrat, Koopman, Ton, Lawrence-King, Andrew, Lislevand, Rolf, Savall, Jordi

AVSA 9862

Together with Rossi, Cavalli and Carissimi, Tarquinio Merula belongs to the generation of composers born between 1595 and 1605, for whom the concertante style was no longer a novel idiom but the musical medium they had known from childhood as the dominant musical language of their time. Born in Bussetto in 1595, Merula probably received his musical education at the Cathedral of Cremona and - after appointments as organist in Lombardy's Lodi and at the Polish Royal Court in Warsaw - changed several times between the positions of Kapellmeister at the main churches of Cremona and Bergamo from 1626 until his death. • Merula published most of his works at a time when the outstanding composers of the previous generation, Monteverdi and Grandi, were still influential in shaping musical life in Italy. Thus, the change in public taste in the 1620s and 30s can be clearly observed in his publications. From highly expressive solo madrigals or dramatic scenes set to music in the "stile recitativo", the focus now turns to a more balanced relationship between word and music, formal construction and musical unity. Expressive and sometimes dramatic interpretations of words do not lose any of their meaning, so that Merula's works are characterized by the spirit of experimental search.

SACD

3.12.2007

7619986398624