Luogo e data di registrazione		Silberne Kapelle, Innsbruck (Austria) - 1956
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer		Seymour Solomon
	Engineer		-
	Prima Edizione LP		Vanguard - The Bach Guild | BG-568 | 1 LP - durata 49' 43" | (p) 1957
	Edizione CD		Artemis Classics | ATM-CD-1280 | 1 CD - durata 49' 43" | (p) & (c) 2005 | ADD
	Cover Art		-
	Note		-

FRESCOBALDI AND THE BAROQUE Florence and Ferrara in the late 16th century Girolamo Frescobaldi's childhood and adolescence fell in one of the most remarkable eras of musical history. It was the period during which the climatic finale of an extraordinary development coincided with the rise of new tendencies that were to create new artistic ideals, forms and technical devices. At the time of Frescobaldi's births (1583) and in the years thereafter Palestrina, Lassus, Victoria and Byrd, the great masters of vocal polyphony, demonstrated continuously their enormous creative powers. Yet, in the closing decade of the 16th century, a movement developed which opposed to the complexities of vocal polyphony brought about a decisive stylistic change. It originated in Florence, this unique focal point of‘ new conceptions, artistic endeavors and political thoughts, where musicians, poets, and scholars gathered in the homes of two noblemen, Giovanni Bardi and Jacopo Cotsi, and discussed the revival or recreation olithc classical Greek drama in terms of music. Rejecting the elaborate choral polyphony, they aimed at a rather harmonic treatment of the dialogue and soliloquy of their Dramma per Musica. The new type of music was called Monody or also appropriately Le Nuove Musiche.  At these gatherings the opera was literally invented. But Ferrara, Frescobaldi's birthplace, was not affected by this new artistic movement. This capital of a Duchy was riled by the d’Este family almost for four centuries. They promoted art and science and made Ferrara a magnificent center of Italian spiritual and artistic life. In Frescobaldi's youth, Ferrara's glorywas by no means a matter of the remote past. On the contrary it still lived on as a correlate of the present in the mind of the people. Many a work of art, the creations of architects, sculptors, and painters, spoke eloquently of Ferrara's greatness. And there were the memories of two outstanding Italian poets: Lodovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso. Ariosto's epic poem Orlando Furioso was a glorification of the house of Este and Tasso wrote his Gerusalemme Liberata when he lectured on astronomy and mathematics at the University of Ferrara. Frescobaldi's Early Years When Frescobaldi was born, the unhappy Tasso was confined to the insane asylium of Sant Anna, located in the neighborhood of the home of the Frescobaldi family. Girolamo undoubtedly learned much of Tasso's tragic life from his teacher Luzzasco Luzzaschi (1545-1607), a friend of the poet. Luzzaschi was a student of the famous Flemish composer Cipriano de Rore. The latter had been a pupil of the great Adrian Willaert in Venice and officiated as a court organist at Ferrara for several years. But Luzzaschi who upheld the traditions of the Flemish school in Ferrara also knew Carlo Gesualdo, one of the most original musicians at the turn of the Cinquecento. Bold as an artist, Gesualdo was also reckless as a man. He did not shy away from inflicting deadly punishment on his unfaithful wife and her lover. Frescobaldi probably met this remarkable man. Frescobaldi was a child prodigy. His singing was praised as that of "an angel of the supreme choir” and his mastery at the cembalo and organ was extolled. He received the best possible musical training. His teacher Luzzaschi was considered one of the greatest musicians of the time. He directed not only the forces at the Cathedral but also a little orchestra formed by the ladies in waiting at the court. Thus Frescobaldi had the opportunity of getting acquainted with all branches of music save the opera. In 1597 Ferrara lost its independence and became a part of the Papal State. This had serious consequences for the artistic life of the town and Frescobaldi realized that only Rome would offer him the opportunity of fulfilling his ambitions. He arrived in the Eternal City about 1604. His presence in Rome is documented in the list of the members of the professional musical society, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, for 1604. Rome at the Turn of the Century Rome of 1604. is difficult to visualize. The Baroque Rome with lavishly decorated churches and spacious palaces, the centers of musical activities, was still to come. St. Peter's cathedral was far from being completed. The Basilica was consecrated only in 1626, the famous altar in 1633, and Bernini's Piazza with the Colonnades was begun only twelve years after Frescobaldi's passing. We do not know his first employments. In 1607 he was organist at Santa Maria in Trastevere, one of the oldest Roman churches. But in the spring of 1608 he left Rome for Flanders in the entourage of Guido Bentivoglio, a nobleman from Ferrara, who was appointed Nuncius in Brussels by Paul V. Frescobaldi returned to Rome after a few months and became organist at St. Peter's. He was then only 25 years old. His competence was recognized, but his connections with the Aldobrandini and Borghese families - Pope Paul V was a Borghese - may have contributed in some way to his election. Frescobaldi assumed his post only fourteen years after Palestrina had passed from the Roman scene. His pupils still held conductors and organist's positions in the Eternal City and Frescobaldi established in time close contacts with these musicians since they also served occasionally as substitutes at St. Peter's. A firm appointment secured, Frescobaldi married and raised a family of five children. Their godfathers were persons of high station, which points to his social advancement and respectability. Intent on increasing his small official salary, he accepted pupils with room and board and in 1614 he entered negotiations for a position in Mantua. The enormous printing costs for the first books of the Toccatas brought him in difficult financial circumstances, which he hoped to overcome with the help of the Duke of Mantua, the dedicatee of the work. Frescobaldi's Later Years Mantua, the capital city of Duchy, ruled by the art-loving Gonzagas, was a small town compared with Rome. But it boasted at blooming musical life reaching its apex through the activities of Salomone Rossi and Claudio Monteverdi. This artistic (‘enter which saw the first performance of Monteverdi's Orfeo held out certainly zttt iactive prospects for Frescobaldi. He did not resign his Roman position and went to Mantua without his family. This proved to be a very wise step. He was received coolly and having spent two months in Mantua Frescobaldi realized that the Duke was not willing to fulfill his linancial demands. He returned to Rome and resumed his post without encountering difficulties on the part of the Church authorities. Influential patrons of art in the College of the Cardinals were his protectors - Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, a nephew of Pope Clement VIII, who built the magnificent Villa in Frascati, Cardinal Antonio Barberini, a brother of Pope Urban VIII, and Cardinal Scipio Borghese, the founder of the famous museum housed in the Casino Borghese on the Monte Oincio. In 1628 Cardinal Aldobrandini introduced Frescobaldi to the visiting Ferdinand II, Grand Duke of Tuscany who persuaded the famous musician to come as organist to Florence. The chapter of St. Peter's generously granted Frescobaldi a leave of absence. It was a long leave, for Frescobaldi stayed six years in the Medicean city. Very little is known about his activities there and we do not know why he returned to Rome in 1634. He was received with open arms, and granted a salary increase. His son Domenico, a cleric who wrote poetry and collected books and paintings, was given a beneficiary in the Vatican. Cardinal Barberini bestowed a pension upon Frescobaldi who dedicated his Fiori musicali to the Cardinal. This work appeared in Venice in 1635. Several facts point to Frescobaldi's sojourn in this city during the late 1630’s but exact information about his activities there is lacking. Around 1642-43 he was in Rome again. Stricken by a virulent fever, he succumbed on March 1, 1643, after receiving the last sacraments. He was interred in Santi Apostoli, his favorite church, as the “most famous organist of our time“ and the Requiem was sung by the leading musicians of the city. The Music Frecobaldi's life's work which is represented by all the categories of music of his time except the opera has not come down to us in even an approximate degree of completeness. A great deal of his vocal music is lost. Needless to say an organist officiating at the Main Church of Christendom composes sacred music quasi ex-officio. But familiar with all musical currents of his age, he also wrote and published  for five voices and arie musicale for one to three voices. A critical complete edition of his instrumental works is still lacking. The notion which saw Frescobaldi as a bold innovator of the Baroque period has been considerably modified through the research of Wili Apel. He drew attention to the works of the representatives of the Neapolitan cembalo school, published at the turn of the 16th century, which display stylistic features once considered specifically Frescobaldian. This school was already in existence about 1550. The tradition, spanning fifty years, made the technical achievements of these composers well known when Frescobaldi matured artistically. He also studied the works of the Flemish masters and was familiar with the attainments of the Roman school whose Foremost representative was Palestrina. Frescobaldi's importance lies according to Margarete Reimann in his refinement and perfecting of existing artistic categories and qualities. His contemporaries were fully conscious of his unique artistic greatness. Awestruck, they regarded his playing, his improvisations and creations as a miracle. One spoke of the "stupore del tasto" (the astonishment of the keyboard) and the "mostro degli organisti” (the prodigy among the organists.) And his pupil, Bartolomeo Grassi, who supervised the second edition of the first book of the Canzone, proclaimed in the foreword that a musician who does not play in the style of Frescobaldi will not be respected. Yet he was the last great Italian master of the organ in the true meaning of the word. After him, Italian organ composition turned in the direction of homophony. It was quite different in Germany. His pupil Johann Jacob Froberger who studied with him from 1637-1641, made the works of his master known in the German orbit. Frescobaldi's influence can be seen in Buxtehude's creations. Johann Sebastian Bach studied the Fiori musicali in his Weimar days (1715.1717) and about 25 years later he advised his pupil, Johann Philip Kirnberger. the renowned oretician, to copy Frescobaldi's ricercari. The present recording illustrates the wealth of Frescobaldi's creations for cembalo and organ through highly significant examples taken from six different collections published between 1615 and 1637. It also provides a panoramic view on the forms, which he mainly cultivated - the toccata, the canzona, ricercar, capriccio and the variation partite. Frescobaldi  did not create these forms. They were patterns of the period, which, however, he instilled with the spirit and emotions of his strong personality. Witness the Toccata per l'Elevazione, "a miracle of simplicity and religious purity" (Luigi Ronda) or that extraordinary pair of toccate sopri I pedali. Built upon very extended pedal points (G-C-F-A-D in the first Band I of Side I and F-C-G-D-A-C in the other on Band 6 of Side I) they display Frescobaldi's enorrnous constructive power, imagination and fantasy. Canzona, capriccio and ricercar meant - in Frescolialdi's practice - the same thing, namely a piece in imitatory style. They were the precursols of the fugue. Guido Adler, the great Viennese musicologist, coined the term Vorformen (performs the fugue). These pieces reflect an inexhaustihle richness of contrapuntal and harmonic combinations. Frescobaldi developed a particular technique of manipulating the melodies of the Magnificat, the hymn of the Virgin Mary. He combines a number of short fugal expositions of the Magnificat melody - in our case based on the second church mode. Called versi or versetti they form a series of varied ricercari. Frescobaldi's extraordinary mastery of the variation technique is stupendously demonstratcd in the Cento Partite sopra Passacagli (1637). It is a variation cycle built upon a slow dance tune. Planned on a grand scale and of imposing architectural proportions, this creation is on account of its melodic, rhythmic, and contrapuntal diversity a worthy predecessor of Corelli's follia and the chaconne and organ of Johann Sebastian Bach. by Dr. Joseph Braunstein About the artist Gustav M. Leonhardt, bom in 1928 in Holland, has entered the select circle of brilliant instrumentalists who are also ground-breaking scholars of renaisance and Baroque music. In his student years in Holland, Switzerland and Austria he won the highest honors both for musicology and performance on the harpsichord and organ. He is one of the acknowledged European masters of the authentic ornaments and improvisatory style of Baroque music. In the spirit of the old musician-artisans, he is also an expert on the construction and design of the harpsichord and Baroque organ. Since 1952 he has been professor of harpsichord and musicology at the Academy of Music in Vienna, dividing his time between Vienna and the Conservatory at Amsterdarn, where he teaches as well. Gustav Leonhardt used a Neupert harpsichord on this recording. The organ is that of the Silbernen Kapelle in Innsbruck, particularly fitting for this recording because it is one of the finest examples of Italian workmanship, dating from the latter 16th century.