La Morte della Ragione (The Death of Reason) (CD + Book)
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Label: Alpha
Cat No: ALPHA450
Format: CD + Book
Number of Discs: 1
Release Date: 17th May 2019
Contents
Works
De tous biens playneLa Battaglia (Pavana)
La morte de la ragione
Preludio a flauto solo
Vocum
Sonata no.7, stravagante sull' Ave maris stella
Tarantella
Sonata decimaquarta a 4 (libro 2)
Nymphes des bois
A dorio tenor (puzzle canon)
Fantasia en Echo
Sonata XIII
Canzon francese del Principe
De tous biens plaine
La Rose
Seconde Stravaganze
Gagliarda
Saltarello
Schiarazzula marazzula
Ungarescha
Upon La Mi Re
Dormendo un giorno (Capriccio)
Galliard Battaglia
In Nomine 'Crye'
La Napolitana (Sinfonia)
Artists
Il Giardino ArmonicoConductor
Giovanni AntoniniWorks
De tous biens playneLa Battaglia (Pavana)
La morte de la ragione
Preludio a flauto solo
Vocum
Sonata no.7, stravagante sull' Ave maris stella
Tarantella
Sonata decimaquarta a 4 (libro 2)
Nymphes des bois
A dorio tenor (puzzle canon)
Fantasia en Echo
Sonata XIII
Canzon francese del Principe
De tous biens plaine
La Rose
Seconde Stravaganze
Gagliarda
Saltarello
Schiarazzula marazzula
Ungarescha
Upon La Mi Re
Dormendo un giorno (Capriccio)
Galliard Battaglia
In Nomine 'Crye'
La Napolitana (Sinfonia)
Artists
Il Giardino ArmonicoConductor
Giovanni AntoniniAbout
‘The senses reign, and Reason now is dead’ (Petrarch). Giovanni Antonini, flautist and founder of the legendary Italian ensemble Il Giardino Armonico, enjoys musical voyages, the discursiveness of music. He begins with an anonymous 16th-century pavane, La Morte della Ragione (The Death of Reason), which he believes refers to In Praise of Folly, in which its author Erasmus distinguishes between two forms of madness: ‘a sweet illusion of the spirit,’ and a negative form, ‘one that the vengeful Furies conjure up from hell...’ This succession of ‘musical pictures’ leads us to the threshold of the baroque era, starting out with the Puzzle Canon by John Dunstable (1390-ca.1453), whose manuscript is an enigma, via the ‘bizarre’ style of Alexander Agricola (1446-ca.1506) and his obsessive, ostinato rhythm – almost an anticipation of minimalist music… to the improvisatory freedom of the Galliard Battaglia by Scheidt (1587-1654), a battle piece involving a great many diminutions or ‘divisions’, a common technique of improvisation in the Renaissance... This grand instrumental musical fresco of time and space is a kind of self-portrait of Giovanni Antonini and his longstanding musical colleagues. To accompany this disc, a richly-illustrated booklet presents a free-ranging iconographical tour combining pictures and contemporary photos.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Anon: Preludio A Flauto Solo
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2Anon: La Morte Della Ragione (Pavana)
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3Mainerio: Gagliarda
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4Tye: In Nomine Crye
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5Ghizeghem: De Tous Biens Plaine
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6Josquin: De Tous Biens Plaine
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7Agricola: De Tous Bien Plaine 1
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8Agricola: De Tous Bien Plaine 2a
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9Agricola: De Tous Bien Plaine 3
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10Agricola: De Tous Bien Plaine 2b
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11Dunstable: Puzzle Canon
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12Josquin: Nymphes Des Bois (La Déploration De La Mort De Johannes Ockeghem)
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13Anon: La Battaglia (Pavana)
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14Preston: Upon La Mi Re
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15Mainerio: Schiarazula Marazula, Ungarescha & Saltarello
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16Gabrieli (G): Sonata #8 A Otto Voci
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17Macque: Seconda Stravaganza
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18Gombert: La Rose (Chanson)
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19Castello: Sonata Decimaquarta A 4
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20Ruffo: Dormendo Un Giorno (Capriccio)
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21Viadana: La Napolitana (Sinfonia)
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22Baldwine: 4 Vocum
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23Gesualdo: Canzon Francese Del Principe
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24Caresana: Tarantella
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25Buono: Sonata #7 Stravagante Sull'Ave Maris Stella
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26Eyck: Fantasia & Echo
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27Scheidt: Galliard Battaglia
Europadisc Review
Giovanni Antonini and his period instrument group Il Giardino Armonico are names best known to collectors right now for their splendid ongoing survey of Haydn’s symphonies (in partnership with Kammerorchester Basel). But Antonini first made his name as a recorder player, and on his latest disc for the Alpha label he returns to the instrument in spectacular style. He and his colleagues base their programme around ideas discussed by Erasmus of Rotterdam in his famous essay In Praise of Folly (1511), and in particular the premise that madness takes two forms: a negative, aggressive and warlike guise, and a more desirable one that ‘not only clears the mind of its troublesome cares but renders it more jocund’. Of these two sorts, it is the latter that is celebrated the most here, being close to the distracting delights of music itself.
This ‘Death of Reason’ (the disc’s title is taken from an anonymous pavan that forms track 2) opens the floodgates to a true garden of musical delights: instrumental and vocal works, all heard in purely instrumental form as was often the fashion, from the 16th and 17th centuries, accompanied by a sumptuously illustrated CD-size book with dazzling contemporary artwork including Hieronymus Bosch’s strikingly surrealist The Garden of Earthly Delights and the nascent cubism of Luca Cambiaso’s Group of Figures. There are plenty of contemporary quotations from a vast range of sources, on the subjects of reason, madness and music, all of which provide the listener with plentiful food for thought.
The music’s the main thing, though, and it’s a real feast for the ear, ranging chronologically from John Dunstaple’s elusive Puzzle Canon to a lively baroque Tarantella by Cristoforo Caresana. The works are arranged broadly chronologically only in that the earlier music is concentrated in the first half of the disc, while later works tend to group in the second half. For the most part, however, the thematic threads are gloriously intertwined, so that more speculative works rub shoulders with bracing popular dances, and the listener is invited to construct his or her own narratives.
An exception is a group of pieces all of which stem from Hayne van Ghizeghem’s celebrated chanson De tous biens plaine, heard instrumentally immediately before Josquin Desprez’s own arrangement and then Alexander Agricola’s three ‘cover versions’, which at times approach the pointillistically minimalist thanks to some imaginative pizzicato string playing. There are more wild and wonderful things here in a group of dances by Giorgio Mainerio, and a rousing (and thrillingly played) concluding Galliard Battaglia by Samuel Scheidt serving as a spirited reminder of the ‘warlike’ aspect of madness.
The real treasures here, however, are in the more introspective items: Josquin’s famous lament for Ockeghem, Nymphes des bois, John Baldwine’s 4 Vocum, a Canzon francese by Gesualdo (in a gloriously pliant keyboard performance), and above all a positively experimentalist rendition of Thomas Preston’s Upon la mi re. Amid a blaze of tremendous cornetts and sackbutts, and with some lively string playing too, it’s Antonini who takes centre stage, displaying his virtuosity on an array of recorders, transverse flute, dulcian, and even an anachronistic but highly enjoyable chalumeau.
Wherever the listener drops in to this programme, there’s something to enjoy and to fascinate the ear and mind. For those collectors who still cherish the discs of the late David Munrow, La morte della Ragione will be an especially enticing proposition, building on Munrow’s musical and imaginative legacy, but with all the benefits of modern playing technique and recorded sound. And for anyone interested in the music of the renaissance and early baroque, it’s simply unmissable, with one gem after another. Coupled with the splendid presentation, it’s also a real bargain!
This ‘Death of Reason’ (the disc’s title is taken from an anonymous pavan that forms track 2) opens the floodgates to a true garden of musical delights: instrumental and vocal works, all heard in purely instrumental form as was often the fashion, from the 16th and 17th centuries, accompanied by a sumptuously illustrated CD-size book with dazzling contemporary artwork including Hieronymus Bosch’s strikingly surrealist The Garden of Earthly Delights and the nascent cubism of Luca Cambiaso’s Group of Figures. There are plenty of contemporary quotations from a vast range of sources, on the subjects of reason, madness and music, all of which provide the listener with plentiful food for thought.
The music’s the main thing, though, and it’s a real feast for the ear, ranging chronologically from John Dunstaple’s elusive Puzzle Canon to a lively baroque Tarantella by Cristoforo Caresana. The works are arranged broadly chronologically only in that the earlier music is concentrated in the first half of the disc, while later works tend to group in the second half. For the most part, however, the thematic threads are gloriously intertwined, so that more speculative works rub shoulders with bracing popular dances, and the listener is invited to construct his or her own narratives.
An exception is a group of pieces all of which stem from Hayne van Ghizeghem’s celebrated chanson De tous biens plaine, heard instrumentally immediately before Josquin Desprez’s own arrangement and then Alexander Agricola’s three ‘cover versions’, which at times approach the pointillistically minimalist thanks to some imaginative pizzicato string playing. There are more wild and wonderful things here in a group of dances by Giorgio Mainerio, and a rousing (and thrillingly played) concluding Galliard Battaglia by Samuel Scheidt serving as a spirited reminder of the ‘warlike’ aspect of madness.
The real treasures here, however, are in the more introspective items: Josquin’s famous lament for Ockeghem, Nymphes des bois, John Baldwine’s 4 Vocum, a Canzon francese by Gesualdo (in a gloriously pliant keyboard performance), and above all a positively experimentalist rendition of Thomas Preston’s Upon la mi re. Amid a blaze of tremendous cornetts and sackbutts, and with some lively string playing too, it’s Antonini who takes centre stage, displaying his virtuosity on an array of recorders, transverse flute, dulcian, and even an anachronistic but highly enjoyable chalumeau.
Wherever the listener drops in to this programme, there’s something to enjoy and to fascinate the ear and mind. For those collectors who still cherish the discs of the late David Munrow, La morte della Ragione will be an especially enticing proposition, building on Munrow’s musical and imaginative legacy, but with all the benefits of modern playing technique and recorded sound. And for anyone interested in the music of the renaissance and early baroque, it’s simply unmissable, with one gem after another. Coupled with the splendid presentation, it’s also a real bargain!
Reviews
Dominated by the virtuoso flute and recorder playing of Il Giardino Armonico’s Giovanni Antonini, this is a personal journey from the late middle ages to the early baroque, taking in a Dunstable puzzle canon, Agricola’s variations on a Josquin chanson, Mainerio dances and a resonant eight-voice Gabrieli sonata. ... it’s a breathless and entertaining ride. Nicholas KenyonThe Observer 5 May 2019
I welcome Il Giardino Armonico’s commitment to filling our modern ears with such strange sounds with, well, open ears. As if one could block out such unapologetic strangeness anyway. The bizarre vibrato in John Dunstable’s Puzzle Canon, the comic counterpoint in Josquin’s De tous biens plaine and the breathy, wiry timbres of the reed instruments that buzz against the historical brass throughout: all these, and more, are thrillingly weird. ... The complete mastery of tremolos and vibrazioni, that cultivation of the ‘moral attitude’ that is sprezzatura; this is the closest modern bodies come to possessing period flesh. ... A carnival of the weird and wonderful from start to finish. Mark SeowGramophone July 2019
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