Track 1: Lirum bililirum (Rossino Mantovano)
RECORDING OF THE MONTH (June 2016) @ MusicWeb International
THE LION’S EAR – A Tribute to Leo X, Musician among Popes
Label: RAMÉE (RAM 1403), 2015
In 1513, Giovanni di Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici (1475-1521) son of the mythic Lorenzo il Magnifico was elected Pope Leo X. Giovanni had inherited his family’s refined interest in, and zealous support of, the arts: literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, and music. But of all of these, Giovanni favored music, for which his passion was legendary among contemporaries. The musical life of Leo’s court was unimaginably rich and vibrant, as innumerable eyewitness accounts confirm.
LA MORRA joined forces with Professor Anthony M. Cummings, author of the book The Lion’s Ear: Pope Leo X, the Renaissance Papacy, and Music, to bring this world acoustically to life and illustrate the range of practices typifying Leo’s own musical experiences. The project has been honoured with the Noah Greenberg Award (2014) by the American Musicological Society. It is a tribute to a rare and extraordinary patron of music himself a composer and musician, who occupied that singular position at the very summit of the universal ecclesiastical hierarchy.
LA MORRA: Franz Vitzthum, Ivo Haun de Oliveira, Giovanni Cantarini, Giacomo Schiavo, Jean-Christophe Groffe (voices), Corina Marti (recorders & harpsichord), Michal Gondko (lute & viola da mano), David Hatcher, Soma Salat-Zakariás (viola da gamba), Ann Allen (recorder), Ralph Stelzenmüller (harpsichord)
ARTISTIC DIRECTION: Corina Marti & Michal Gondko
With an introductory essay by Anthony M. Cummings, Michal Gondko & Corina Marti
REVIEWS
- DIAPASON: (…) On imagine l’oreille du Lion se dressant avec intérêt à l’écoute des merveilles de sa chapelle et sa cour, tandis que l’auditeur se laisse conduire par cette visite sonore guidée. Et quels guides ! Corina Marti et Michal Gondko, rompus à cette periode charnière entre Moyen Age et Renaissance, ont orienté leur programme avec la complicité du musicologue Anthony M. Cummings, auteur d’un ouvrage sur ce sujet. (…) Absolument remarquable, la notice détaille en profondeur les enjeux de ce projet autant historique que musical, véritable invitation au voyage.
- CLASSIC VOICE: (…) L’esecuzione, tanto delle parti vocali quanto delle strumentali, è intesa alla compostezza e a un’eleganza che spazia dal melanconico allo svagato senza mai cadere in eccessi triviali. (…) [read the full review]
- GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE: [La Morra] never fails to keep the listener’s attention alive. (…) [read the full review]
- CRESCENDO MAGAZINE: C’est un bien beau disque [read the full review]
- MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL, Recording of the Month (June 2016): (…) an enormously rewarding disc (…) [read the full review]
- BR-KLASSIK: Musik vom Hof Papst Leos X.
- SWR CD-TIPP: Lebendige und spielfreudige Interpretation
- CONCERTI.DE: CD-Rezension La Morra – Historiker-Glück
- AMAZON.COM Customer reviews