Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri / Giulio Prandi NICCOLÒ JOMMELLI Requiem

REQUIEM

 

Giulio Prandi / Ghislieri Choir & Consort HANDEL In Rome 1707

At the very end of 1706, not yet 22 years of age, George Frideric Handel arrived in Rome. “Having shown off his skills to the amazement of everyone” on the organ of St John Lateran on 14 January 1707, the young talent from beyond the Alps immediately established himself in the lively cultural fabric of the city, causing a disruptive reaction, an alchemy that was to transform the traveller as much as his hosts. The compositions recorded here testify to this meeting: a dialogue between two musical cultures that shared an illustrious history and an extremely dynamic modernity; a dialogue captured in the first annus mirabilis of the crucial Italian tour that gave rise to the earliest masterpieces by the Saxon, as German musicians were often called in Italy. By the first weeks of the year, Handel was already caught up in a dense network of aristocratic patronage, both secular (the Marquis Ruspoli) and ecclesiastical (the Cardinals Ottoboni, Colonna and Pamphili), and that saw him play the dual roles of composer and performer at the keyboard in a plethora of occasions, from religious functions (even if Handel was Lutheran) to accademie or conversazioni, namely concerts held at the luxurious homes of patrons, and open to diplomats, aristocrats, travellers and musicians; occasions on which he worked alongside such established colleagues as Arcangelo Corelli, Bernardo Pasquini and Alessandro Scarlatti.

Giulio Prandi is the founder and conductor of the Ghislieri Choir & Consort. He is also artistic and musical director of Ghislierimusica, set in the historic Ghislieri College of Pavia. Prandi and the Ghislieri Choir and Consort are regularly invited to perform at prestigious music festivals and in major concert halls all over Europe. After the debut album for Amadeus magazine, Prandi started recording for Sony - Deutsche Harmonia Mundi in 2010. In 2015/2016, he formed part of the jury of the Göttingen Handel Competition and of the International Van Wassenaer Competition 2016 in Utrecht. Giulio Prandi’s engagements with Ghislieri Choir & Consort will take him to Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Malta.

Roberta Invernizzi / Salvo Vitale / Giulio Prandi / Ghislieri Choir & Consort DAVIDE PEREZ Mattutino de' Morti

There are some interpreters’ albums in which a certain vision stirs our admiration. There are complete works , famous composers , different generations,  schools and conceptions that outline the landmark  of certain  parts of  this kind of literature. It is argued whether the musician was good or not. It is then compared with other versions. Or, as it is the case of this album, Davide Perez, it gets discovered – a name, a work, an age – of transition in this case, as the Italian born in Naples, in Pergolesi’s generation, was part of a particular longevity line, by dying in Lisbon in the year when Mozart composed  Symphony no. 31, Paris.

An album released in 2014 – Mattutino de' Morti by Davide Perez, in a fundamental interpretation – Ghislieri Choir and Consort, conducted by Giulio Prandi along with the soprano Roberta Invernizzi and the bass Salvo Vitale, as soloists. It is an album through which one of the 18^th  century’ masterpieces is returned to us alongwith this name enlisted in the  gallery of the creators of Opera Seria and sacred music, that is brought back to our attention.

Dedicated to those gone, Mattutinode' Morti is an oratorio for soloists, choir and orchestra – luxuriant, like the royal ceremonies. It symbolizes, even in this case, the ideas of greatness and brilliance; just like other similar pages signed by Davide Perez, it creates a bridge between the Baroque and the Classicism; it brings here the concertato style and some features borrowed from the operatic works. It was kept in the repertory  since 1770, the year of its first appearance, until the end of the 19^th century. After a break longer than a century, it was interpreted in 2013, by the Ghislieri Choir and Consort in France, Italy, Holland and at the "George Enescu" International Festival in Bucharest, during the nightly concerts at the Romanian Athenaeum. (Marina Nedelcu)