Sirens & Soldiers. Songs Without Words From the Italian Seicento

"Just as the worthy and skilled painter imitates all things created in nature by varying the colours, in the same way you can imitate the expression made by the human voice on a wind and stringed instrument". This concept, which was explained by Silvestro Ganassi in his Opera intitulata La Fontegara already in 1535, has inspired Concerto Scirocco to seekthe maximum expression when interpreting the instrumental music of the 16th and 17th centuries. Hand in hand with the development of the instrumental repertoire, rhetoric became the link between instrument and voice, between imitation and reality. Where words were lacking, composers and instrumentalists used rhetoric to delight listeners just as singers did.

In this, its fifth, recording, Concerto Scirocco focuses on an early baroque anthology of pieces, "painting in notes" a number of musical portraits full of contrasts:the pulsating rhythm of the battle in theSymphonia "Agranbattaglia",thebeguilingmermaids in Marco Uccellini'sAria sopra"Questa bella Sirena",or the operatic tension in theSonata atreby Francesco Cavalli.

Tarquinio Merula (1590-1665) , Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) , Giovanni Antonio Terzi (1580-1600) , Philipp Friedrich Böddecker (1607-1683) , Marco Uccellini (1610-1680) , Ottavio Bargnani (1570-1627) , Salomone Rossi (1570-1630) , Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676) , Marco Antonio Ferro (1600-1662) , Biagio Marini (1597-1665) , Andrea Falconieri (1585-1656) , Maurizio Cazzati (1620-1677) a.o.

• Tarquinio Merula: Canzon Undecima detta "La Fontana"; Canzon Decima Ottava "La Cavagliera"
  +Samuel Scheidt: Canzon XXIX super Cantionem Gallicam
  +Giovanni Antonio Terzi: Contrapunto sopra "Liquide perle"
  +Philipp Friedrich Böddecker: Sonata sopra "La Monica"
  +Marco Uccellini: Symphonia Trigesima Quarta "A gran battaglia"; Aria Decima Terza sopra "Questa bella sirena"
  +Ottavio Bargnani: Canzon Decima Sesta sopra "La Monica"
  +Salomone Rossi: Sonata Prima detta "La Moderna"; Sonata sopra l'Aria di Ruggiero
  +Francesco Cavalli: Canzon
  +Marco Antonio Ferro: Sonata Quinta
  +Biagio Marini: Canzon Decima
  +Andrea Falconieri: Fantasia detta "La Porta"
  +Maurizio Cazzati: Ballo delle Ombre
  +Johann Heinrich Schmelzer: Ciaccona