Bernardo Storace (c.1637-post 1664)
Complete Harpsichord and Organ Music
Enrico Viccardi (organ, harpsichord, spinet)
rec. 2016.
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 95455 [2 CDs: 139]
When I first took an interest in Bernardo Storace, some ten or twelve years ago, the standard view was, as expressed by Barton Hudson in his entry on the composer in The New Grove Dictionary of Music (1980), that “All that is known of Storace’s life derives from the title-page of his sole collection of music”. That collection, published in 1664 tells us that Storace was, at that date, “vice Maestro di Cappella dell’Illustrissimo Senato della nobile ed esemplare città di Messina”. The entry in New Grove offers no suggestions as to when he was born or when he died, settling for the simple information “fl. mid C17”. In the intervening years I have frequently listened to the music contained in that one collection, Selva di varie compositioni d’intavolatura per cembalo ed organo”, but have made no attempt to keep up with any new scholarship on Storace.
When making an online search as I prepared to write this review, I was surprised to find several websites (e.g. Presto’s webpages, AllMusic and Discogs.com) giving the composer’s dates as 1637-1701. I don’t know on what evidence these dates are based. The notes to the 2-CD set under review here, open with the familiar statement that “All we know about Bernardo Storace comes from the Selva di varie compositioni d’intavolatura per cembalo ed organo”. However, the track listing provided is headed “Bernardo Storace (c.1637-after 1664)”. The “after 1664” is self-evidently justified, but nowhere does the documentation explain where the birth date of 1637 comes from. I remain unsure of the validity of this date, but since it seems now to be widely accepted, I have used in the header above.
Altogether less murky and confusing is the question of how good Storace’s music is. Very good, is the short answer. In his booklet notes, Enrico Viccardi declares that “his style speaks for a degree of originality that should earn him a place among the great composers of keyboard music of the baroque period in Europe”. That doesn’t strike me as an exaggerated claim. There is a sense of abundant inventiveness in Storace’s writing. This one collection (perhaps there were others that haven’t survived?) the Selva contains twenty-three pieces, in a range of forms. There are airs and variations on dances, songs and other ‘musical schemes’ of the time – such as, for example, ‘La Spagnoletta’, the ‘Monica’, the ‘Ruggiero’, the ‘Romanesca’ and the passamezzo, etc.; there are two toccatas, each paired with a Canzon; there are two pieces with the simple title ‘Corrente’, while other pieces include the colourful ‘Ballo della Battaglia’ and a remarkable ‘Pastorale’ which closes the collection.
Enrico Viccardi plays Storace’s music on four different instruments – all of which sound to be of the highest quality and appropriateness. Seven pieces (see ‘Contents’ below) are played on the organ of the Parish Church of Santa Maria della Neve, in Gualtieri, some 40 miles north-west of Bologna. Made in 1784, this organ was installed by Agostino Traeri, who seems to have been active in the second half of the Eighteenth Century. Several generations of the Traeri family were active as organ builders from late in the Seventeenth Century in Northern Italy, particularly around Bologna and Modena. This particular instrument incorporates earlier pipes from the Sixteenth Century by Giovanni Cipri and elements from the Seventeenth Century (1670) by Carlo Lanzi. Some additions / alterations were made in 1788 by Andrea Montesani and the whole “was restored with some reconstruction by Daniele M. Giani in 2006” (Booklet notes, presumably by Enrico Viccardi). Details of the stops on this organ can be found in the CD booklet (with a photograph).
Five pieces are played on a harpsichord of 2000 by the Italian maker Umberto Debiaggi (based at Quarona in Piedmont). It is a copy of an instrument by the Sicilian maker Carlo Grimaldi (fl. 1700), probably the one in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg. Four works are played on an eighteenth-century Portative organ by F. Cimino, restored by Daniele Giani of Corte De Frati, near Cremona. Viccardi plays three more works on a spinet, made in 1984 by Michele Barchi, an instrument maker based in Viarigi (in the Piedmont region of Italy). According to the booklet notes it “is built along the lines of the Venetian models of the second half of the 17th century”.
There is genuine creative inventiveness in Storace’s music; it is never dull and at its best it is exhilarating. I wish we had more of it! Highlights include the ‘Pastorale’ which closes book and discs alike. Some of its sounds echo Sicilian folk music, especially that of the zampognari, rural players of the zampogna, a double chantered pipe of the bagpipe family. But Storace’s ‘Pastorale’ reaches far beyond any such rural echoes. It is full of repeated patterns heard over a D pedal and incorporates many changes of texture. The whole demonstrates just how impressive Storace’s music can be, what a skilled and perceptive interpreter Enrico Viccardi is and what an interesting instrument the Traeri organ in Gualtieri is. The work is rich in interest and, to my ears, spiritually refreshing – I am tempted to say it is almost sublime. I don’t think it is fanciful to be reminded of various mystical practices by its insistent patterning. Traditionally the zampognari came into town to play at Christmas, ‘remembering’ the narrative of the nativity in St. Luke’s Gospel. Perhaps Storace had Christmas in mind in his ‘Pastorale’. As I listened to this piece several times, I recalled the first stanza of a poem ‘A Francisco de Salinas’ by Luis de León (1528-91), an ode to the blind organist of that name (1513-1590); poet and organist were colleagues at the University of Salamanca:
El aire se serena
y viste de hermosura y luz no usada,
Salinas, cuando suena
la música estremada,
por vuestra sabia mano gobernada.
The air becomes serene
And takes on unusual beauty and light,
Salinas, when the supreme music sounds forth,
Governed by your knowing hand.
The English translation is by Joscelyn Godwin, quoted (p.138) from his invaluable book Music, Mysticism and Magic (Arkana,1987).
At the opposite end of the spectrum, in terms of scale, sound-world and tone is Storace’s ‘Aria sopra la Spagnoletta’, played on the spinet. It is relevant to know, though one might deduce as much simply from listening to Storce’s ‘Aria’, that the Spagnoletta was “a flirtatious couple dance popular in the sixteenth century” (oxfordreference.com). In Viccardi’s vivacious performance the lightness of touch and the all-pervasive sense of fun are appropriately playful and, yes, flirtatious. Another outstanding piece, played this time on the Cimino Portative Organ, is the collection’s only ‘Ciaccona’. In formal terms it is well described by Enrico Viccardi – who, I see, teaches organ and organ composition at the Conservatorio di Musica Arrigo Boito in Parma, and organ at the Marc’Antonio Association in Cremona) – in the booklet notes, when he writes “it is in a luminous, lively C major featuring a succession in fifths, with one part in F major and one in B flat major, followed by the conclusion that returns to C major”. The Cimino organ has a rich and powerful sound for a portative organ, but the agile playing of Signor Viccardi ensures the desired clarity of sound that does justice to this subtly-made piece. In the exceedingly unlikely event that anyone should ever ask me to put together a CD/recital programme made up of chaconnes / chaconas / ciaccone I would certainly want to see this fine example of the genre included.
It would be unfair if my selection of ‘highlights’ did not include one of the pieces played on Umberto Debiaggi’s attractive sounding copy of a Sicilian harpsichord by Carlo Grimaldi. I have chosen (the choice not being an easy one) the ‘Passagagli sopra C sol fa ut per B’ which closes the first disc. Storace’s abundant creativity is evident here. The bass-line uses “different formats of the classic descending tetrachord” (Viccardi), with Storace’s fecund creativity at work above that bass, deploying, for example, simultaneous ascending and descending melodic lines, allusions to dance rhythms such as the gagliarda and the sarabanda. Viccardi is fully in control of this rich mixture, and the harpsichord has a bright top and middle coupled with a generously resonant, but not excessive, bass.
There are other recordings of some or all of this music. There are, for example, selections by Fabio Bonizzoni (Glossa GCD 921506), Rinaldo Alessandrini (Astrée 8762) and Jurg Halubek (CPO 777 4442). All are recommendable, but hearing Storace’s music complete enhances one’s pleasure and understanding of it. The only other complete recording I am familiar with is that by Francesco Cera (Tactus 601990). On balance I find Viccardi’s playing more variously idiomatic than Cera’s and his four high-quality instruments offer a greater range of sound than can be heard on Cera’s two discs. The sound quality on this new recording is also slightly better (although the recordings were made in four different locations – one per instrument – the acoustic is consistently good). If, then, you love baroque music but have no Storace on your shelves, this is the set to buy.
I hope that anyone who has read as far as this will allow me a little biographical speculation in what follows. It is often assumed (e.g. in New Grove) that Storace’s origins lay in North Italy, because his one collection was published in Venice and because many of his compositions seem to owe more to the music of that region than of Southern Italy. Neither of these premises can be proven or, indeed, disproven. There was much traffic of musicians between the various regions of Italy – Bernardo Storace might, for example, have studied in Northern Italy without having been born there. Or he might have been taught by a musician or musicians from Northern Italy without himself having been born there. Publication of your music in Venice was certainly desirable, but Storace might have needed nothing more than friends or family with Venetian connections to be able to bring that about.
At least three other musicians that we know of shared the surname of Storace. The most familiar were the London based composer Stephen Storace (1762-1796) and his sister, the soprano Nancy Storace (1765-1819) who created the role of Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. Stephen and Nancy were the children of an Italian violinist and double bassist who worked in both Dublin and London – Stephen (Stefano?) Storace (c.1725-c.1781). This ‘Stephen’ Storace was born in Torre Annunziata, a town on the Gulf of Naples which looks across the sea to Messina. Given the close political and cultural connections between the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily it is not hard to imagine that a skilled musician like Bernardo Storace, if perhaps he came from the same family might have made his way from a place such as Torre Annunziata to employment in Messina. If that speculation be granted possible, then it seems very likely that there might have been a family connection between Bernardo and the ‘English’ Storaces.
Glyn Pursglove
Contents
(Numbers in parentheses indicate the instrument used)
CD1
Capriccio sopra il Passo e Mezzo (2)
Passo e Mezzo (1)
Altro Passo e Mezzo (2)
Romanesca (3)
Aria sopra la Spagnoletta (4)
Monica (3)
Capriccio sopra Ruggiero (3)
Partite sopra il cinque Passi (2)
Follia (4)
Passagagli sopra A la mi re (2)
Passagagli sopra C sol fa ut per B (2)
CD 2
Passagagli sopra D Sol Re Per # (2)
Passagagli Fe fa ut per b (2)
Ciaccona (3)
Balletto (4)
Ballo della Battaglia (1)
Corrente [in sol] (4)
Corrente [in mi] (4)
Toccata e Canzon (in sol) (1)
Toccata e Canzon (in fa) (1)
Recercar (1)
Recercar di ligature (1)
Pastorale (1)
1 – Organ, Parish Church of Santa Maria della Neve, Gualtieri, Italy.
2 – Harpsichord (2000) by Umberto Debiaggi.
3 – Positive Organ by F.Cimino, restored by Daniele Giani
4 – Spinet (1984) by Michele Barchi
Further details of these instruments can be found in the text of the review above.
