Passeggiata Musicale: Leonardo Da Vinci
ALTA Early Music Ensemble
rec. 3-5 February 2020, Main Hall of the National Museum in Warsaw, Poland
AYROS AYCD07 [48:18]
I seem to be reviewing many concept albums nowadays. The idea behind this one is a walk with Leonardo da Vinci through Renaissance Italy, visiting some of the composers he would have known and instruments he would have indeed have played.
Was Leonardo the greatest man of the millennium? Some think so. It is incredible to realise that Lorenzo de Medici initially appointed him as a musician, and that he was especially famed for his improvising on the lira da braccio. As we will see, he also invented an instrument but never got round to constructing it.
The pieces here can mostly be dated to c.1500-1520, among them some by the leading frottola composers of the day such as Marchetto Cara. Others have been arranged from the folk tradition by ALTA’s superb cornett player Gustavo Gargulo. The booklet essay tells us clearly: “None of Leonardo’s musical compositions survived”. Why then do the contents of the disc include the note ‘after Leonardo’? Well, in his typical manner, he left in his notebooks various musical riddles (at least 18) in musical notation. These ‘notes’ even created succinct sentences, for example L’amour mi fa solazzare. Remembering the sol-fa of Guido d’Arezzo, one can see la, re, mi, fa, sol, la embedded in the title. One only needs to put these pitches to the text and make a suitable arrangement for the instruments at your disposal.
The instrument which Leonardo invented has been especially reconstructed by Polish musician Sławomir Zubrzycki, pictured seated at the viola organista. Leonardo may have wanted to create a universal instrument which combines the best qualities of viols with those of a keyboard. The string mechanism of bows is put into a keyboard mechanism with even a pedal. Sadly, it only features once on the disc (in J’attends secours by Sermisy immediately followed by a repeat played on the virginal for comparison). A lira da braccio is also featured, and is pictured reconstructed by Krzysztof Obst.
The poet Angelo Polizziano (d.1494) features on four tracks. He must have known Leonardo as he became a tutor to the Medici family children and was an esteemed classical scholar translating Ovid, Homer and Catullus. His lines are put to melodies of a traditional Italian character. A poem by Lorenzo Medici is also used for track 2, the Trionfo de Baccoae Ariadne.
ALTA on this album is made up of two singers and ten instrumentalists playing recorder, cornets, percussion, lutes and more. Soprano Aleksandra Joanna Hanus’s pure, light tone appears alongside the rich tone of alto Malwina Borkowicz. The palette on display therefore is suitably colourful and interesting. The performances are enthusiastic but controlled and expressive.
It is disappointing that the playing time is less than fifty minutes. This is not really acceptable now. In this case, with such an interesting notion behind the programming of the disc, it may have been possible to incorporate a few more pieces.
The booklet contains all texts in the original, in English and in Polish. The essay is of much interest, and there are photographs, including a reproduction of Botticelli’s glorious Birth of Venus, a painting that inspired Poliziano’s poem Stanza per la giostra.
Gary Higginson
Contents:
RE LA SOL MI FA SOL – after Leonardo* [3:09]
Trionfo de Bacco e Aridane* [6:27]
Bartolomeo TROMBONCINO (c.1470-1535)
Ostinato vo’seguire [2:40]
L’amore là sol mi far emirate – after Leonardo* [2:47]
Francesco PATAVINO (1478-1556)
Dilla del Aqua [1:59]
Un cavalier di Spagna [1:26]
Joan Ambrosio DALZA (d.1508)
Calata alla spagnola [1:39]
Venere ‘Vera la Schiuma’ canto ad lyram [2:12]*
Romanesca – chi vuol bevere* [4:32]
Ben venga Maggio [2:38]
JOSQUIN DES PRES (.c1445-1521)
Mille regrez [1:42]
L’amore mi fa solazzare – after Leonardo* [2:00]
Ingenio musicale – after Leonardo* [3:39]
Marchetto CARA (1470-1525)
Non e tempo d’aspettare [2:15]
Claudin de SERMISY (1490-1552) arr. Pierre ATTAINGNANT (1494-1552)
Tant que vivray [2:49]
SERMISY
J’attends secours (viola organista) [1:36]
J’attends secours (virginal) [1:42]
Clement JANEQUIN (c.1485-1558)
L’amour la mort et la vie [2:56]
*items arranged by Gustavo Gargulo
