Opera Elinor Frey Archive

Angelo Maria FIORE: Complete cello sonatas & 17th c. Italian Operas – Elinor Frey (baroque cello) – Passacaille

by Audiophile Audition | Aug 26, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

Angelo Maria FIORE: Complete cello sonatas & 17th c. Italian Operas – Elinor Frey (baroque cello) – Passacaille 1026, 74:38, (5/1/17) ****: Late Baroque ascendency of the cello in Northern Italian sonata and vocal music, brilliantly played on original instruments. (Elinor Frey; baroque cello / Lorenzo Ghielmi; harpsichord / Suzie LeBlanc; soprano / Esteban La Rotta; theorbo) If asked to guess the origin of the major human inventions such as the mechanical clock, gunpowder, the compass, or paper, the safe guess is usually China. When it comes to musical forms and instruments, however, one should posit an Italian source, the heritage that has bequeathed us the very word “invention.” The recording under review documents the debut of the cello as a solo instrument at the end of the 17th century in the Northern Italian courts of Bologna, Padua and Modena. The cello enjoyed a most dramatic triumph over the viol family, until then the long-standing instrumental choice of the nobility and amateurs throughout Europe, ending in the total eclipse of its rival. The Sonatas of Angelo Maria Fiore demonstrate just how the ‘“veni, vedi, vici” attitude of the instrument managed this conquest. First, a number of cellist composers attached to […]