Concert 8th august 2023 – Festival de Pollença

Christina PLUHAR-L’ARPEGGIATA & Maria del Mar BONET

Vincenzo CAPEZZUTO

“Sons, ritmes, tonades i cançons de la tradició mediterrània”

« I have known Christina Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata for years and have just about all their discography. I feel great admiration for them. I like everything they do, especially when they dialogue with dancing and singers and musicians from the Mediterranean.

It goes without saying how excited I am to be able to sing my songs, poetry and Mallorcan folk tunes with Christina and L’Arpeggiata. I always enjoy partnering with other artists from the Mediterranean and North Africa, and thanks to the joint initiative of the Torroella de Montgrí, Pollença and Sagunto Festivals, this partnership is now a soon-to-come-true dream».

Maria del Mar Bonet

«Ciaccona» (Maurizio Cazzati)
Instrumental

«La Carpinese» (Tradicional -Carpino-)
Vincenzo Capezzuto

«Pizzica di San Vito» (Tradicional –Salento-)
Vincenzo Capezzuto

«La Dia Spagnola» (Nicolas Mattei / Improvisació -arranj. Christina Pluhar-)
Instrumental

«Dicitencello Vuje» (Rodolfo Falvo -arranj. Christina Pluhar-)
Vincenzo Capezzuto

«Canario» (Girolamo Kapsberger / Improvisació -arranj. Christina Pluhar-)
Instrumental

«Lo Guarracino» (Tarantel·la) (Tradicional – Nàpols, s. XVIII)
Vincenzo Capezzuto

«Toccata L’Arpeggiata» (Girolamo Kapsberger -1580-1651-)
Instrumental

«La Llorona» (Tradicional) Vincenzo Capezzuto

«Suave melodia» (Andrea Falconiero -Nàpols, 1650)
Instrumental

«Silenziu d’amuri» (Alfio Antico)
Vincenzo Capezzuto

«Pizzicarella mia» (Tradicional -Pulla-)
Vincenzo Capezzuto

Pausa tècnica

«Dansa de la primavera» (Tradicional)
Maria del Mar Bonet

«La dama d’Aragó» (Tradicional)
Maria del Mar Bonet

«La mort de na Margalida» (Tradicional)
Maria del Mar Bonet

«Tonada de collir figues» (Tradicional)
Maria del Mar Bonet

«Na Ruixa Mantells» (Tradicional)
Maria del Mar Bonet

«Fandango mallorquí» (Tradicional)
Maria del Mar Bonet

«Fandango» (Santiago de Murcia)
Instrumental – Josep Maria Martí Duran

«El Pi de Formentor» (Tradicional)
Maria del Mar Bonet

«Jota marinera» (Tradicional)
Maria del Mar Bonet

PROGRAM NOTES

THE WATERS OF A SHARED MUSIC FOUNTAIN

Bàrbara Duran, Musicologist and writer

What are the thresholds between traditional and cultured music? Who sets the standards for what is what? Who designs the outlines of what is accepted as popular or highbrow music structures? Increasingly, the classical concert format or the so-called cultured music – or music for connoisseurs: “connoisseurs” – those who know, and that’s the keyword, is being discussed. Today, we often mix up terms and lose our way. We think that the wonderful cultured music, the “historical,” designated as a device worthy of being programmed by the great theatres and auditoriums, comes from a pretty much divine inspiration transmitted almost secretly by the great masters. Nothing is further from reality. This evening’s programme presents a repertoire originated in two musical traditions: the folk and the one we may call cultured, which share rhythms, melodic/harmonic patterns, formal structures and modal and tonal turns. And, especially, the love for dance, sung words and fun.

There are many examples of these aesthetic crossovers: Manacor’s «Goigs de Sant Antoni» (sung by a very young generation that goes wild on the day of the festivity) are suspiciously similar to a piece collected by Gaspar Sanz, «Paradetas» (1675). However, with this affirmation, we risk being accused of sacrilege by the “tradition keepers.” «Conde Claros» is one of the Renaissance’s Spanish composers’ most used popular romances: Valderrábano, Mudarra and Narváez. Antonio de Cabezón composed the “diferencias” for the keyboard on a song widespread in Spain in the 15th and 16th centuries, «Guárdame las vacas,» known in Italy as «Romanesca.» The “diferencias” were a sort of variations on the tune that everyone recognized. The Spanish Baroque uses other pieces, such as the sweet song «Marizápalos,» which Gaspar Sanz and Antoni Martí Coll harmonized. This evening’s programme is an exquisite sample of this continuous exchange: the Baroque’s «Fandango de Santiago de Murcia» (1732), paired here with the «Fandango mallorquí,» which air and rhythm are no waste, as well as Kapsberger’s «Canario» – a sort of dance also composed by Martí y Coll, Sanz and others.

Many of these pieces, such as the first «Ciaccona» by Cazzati, are based on dances with obstinate basses repeating a melodic-harmonic pattern on which the soloists improvise the main melody’s decreases or embellishments, allowing their interpretative abilities to be displayed, if it comes to that.

Another element to pay attention to this evening is the poems set to music, the words set to music, which hide precious stories: «Na Ruixa Mantells», maddened, screaming for her friend, lost in the vast sea – a poem by Miquel Costa i Llobera, parallel with the tarantella «La Carpinese» – the dance used to cure female madness caused by tarantula bites in Sicily and elsewhere. «La Dama d’Aragó» and «La mort de na Margalida» are two beautiful narrative songs from the Catalan Countries and the Mediterranean shared repertoire—the naked simplicity of the music composed by Maria del Mar Bonet for «Lo pi de Formentor» poem holds a refined essentialness that attires an exceptional poem with sounds.

A boisterous rhythm presides over «Pizzica de San Vito» – a title that suggests its unique joy… the body and dance movement, always embracing music, as in «La Día Spagnola» – a song by Nicola Matteis that has been arranged and allows instrumental improvisation, decrease or glossing of a previously mentioned theme.

Girolamo Kapsberger’s «Tocata l’Arpeggiata» shows how a deep knowledge of plucked string instruments can weave a delicate and magnificent piece. And we will still find gems like the «Tonada de collir figues» and the «Jota marinera», which compete with «Pizzicarella mia,» «Silenziu d’amuri,» «Suave melodía»…. Intervals, trends and the harmonies we acknowledge as well-known are interchanged.

«Dicitencello Vuje» is the song we all wish someone would sing in our ears in one of those unique moments when we are painfully aware of life’s elusive beauty.

«Lu Passaruellu» completes a concert that gets you thinking. However, music paths break through like water sprouting from a communal fountain, bringing life to the creatures drinking it.

L’Arpeggiata

Christina Pluhar, conductor

Founded in 2000, L’Arpeggiata is an exceptional ensemble conducted by Christina Pluhar. It comprises some of today’s best soloists, also partnering with superb, well-known singers, both from baroque and traditional music. Their purpose is to respawn a repertoire almost unknown today, starting from the 17th century’s beginning.

L’Arpeggiata bases are instrumental improvisations, a different approach in singing – influenced by traditional music – and creating engaging mainstream staged shows.

Since its foundation, L’Arpeggiata has had an incredible response from the audience and specialized critics. Their album La Villanella, dedicated to Girolamo Kapsberger’s music, was considered «Event of the Month» by Repertorie des Disques in September 2001, and was awarded the International Italian Music Award. Their second record production, Homo fugit velut umbra (Stefano Landi), won the Repertoire 10, Diapason Découverte, BBC CD of the Week, Amadeus CD of the Month (Italy) and Prix Exellentia for Pizzicato (Luxembourg). In turn, La Tarantella, which set a meeting between baroque and traditional repertoires musicians, won the Repertoire 10, CD of the Week for France Musique, and CD of the Month for Toccata (Germany). Their third album, All’Improvviso, achieved the Timbre de Platine from l’Opéra International and CD of the Month from BBC Magazine. Likewise, Rapresentatione di Anima et di Corpo (Emilio de Cavalieri) won the Charles Cros Academy Award. Their album Los Imposibles includes The King’s Singers and the flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela’s contribution.

Since 2009, they have been recording for the Warner Classics label. Their album Teatro d’amore, with music by Claudio Monteverdi and singers Philippe Jaroussky and Nuria Rial contribution, was awarded the Echo Klassik Preis (Germany) in 2009, as well as the Edison Classic Price (Netherlands) in 2010.

The Via Crucis CD, featuring the vocal ensemble Barbara Furtuna (Corsica), was released in March 2010 and Vespro della Beate Vergine (Claudio Monteverdi) in February 2011. The album Los pájaros perdidos, released in January 2012, was dedicated to Latin America’s traditional and baroque music. The Music for a while – Improvisations on Henry Purcell CD, in association with the prestigious countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, was released in March 2014. Their latest recording, Francesco Cavalli – L’amore innamorato (Warner / Erato), came out in October 2015 and is dedicated to the most beautiful opera arias for soprano by Francesco Cavalli.

L’Arpeggiata has taken part in festivals such as Lufthansa Festival – London, Oude Muziek – Utrecht, Printemps des Arts – Nantes; Pfigstfestspiele Melk, St. Michel-en-Thierache Festival, Sablé-sur-Sarthe Festival, Brugge Musica Antica, Poissy, St. Petersburg, Moscou, Philharmonie Köln, Paris Salle Gaveau, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Musikfestspiele Postdam, Händelfestspiele Halle, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Ruhr Triennale, Istanbul International Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space and Carnegie Hall in New York, among many others.

Cristina Pluhar

Conductor, lutenist, harpist, arranger and composer

«With L’Arpeggiata, the baroque arrives directly at the 21st century: fine, cultured, noble, full of flavour, energetic, fast. A vital look back and forward. »

BR Klassik

Austrian conductor Christina Pluhar is one of the most groundbreaking musicians in the early music scene.

With her overwhelming love for music, she won the ECHO Klassik in 2009, 2010 and 2011. In 2018, Opus Klassik awarded the ensemble L’Arpeggiata «Ensemble of the Year.» Critics praise the liberated, spontaneous and highly virtuosic way in which the instrumentalists and singers breathe new life into the selected works under Pluhar’s direction—how they are able to extract from them sounds never heard so colourfully before.

Christina Pluhar’s CDs and concerts enchant, and her performances, arrangements and musical breakthroughs shape today’s early music world, which owes much to Christina Pluhar, both the early music scene and 21st-century concert life as a whole.

With the founding of her ensemble L’Arpeggiata in 2000, over the years, the conductor, lutenist, harpist, arranger and composer managed to tear down early music’s interpretation and understanding structures, believed to be firmly entrenched and to renew perspectives. With her approach, Christina Pluhar opened baroque music to an unexpectedly broad audience.

After studying guitar in her hometown, Graz, she graduated in lute with Toyohiko Sato at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. She was awarded the Higher Diploma of Improvement at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Hopkinson Smith. Later, she studied with Mara Galasi at the Scuola Civica di Milano. In 1992 she won first prize at the Malmö International Old Music Competition with the La Fenice ensemble.

He has lived in Paris since 1992, where he appears regularly as a soloist or a continuo player at prestigious festivals, being part of famous ensembles such as La Fenice, Concerto Soave, Accordone, Elyma, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Ricercar, Akademia, La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roy, Concerto Köln, and partnering with conductors such as René Jacobs, Ivor Bolton and Alessandro di Marchi. Her repertoire includes solo and continuo pieces from the 16th to the 18th century for Renaissance lute, baroque guitar, archlute, theorbo and baroque harp.

Pluhar chose some of the most prestigious European artists for her ensemble. She achieved success already with her first recording: La Villanella – a collection of vocal works by Giovanni Kapsberger. Since 2007, Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata have partnered with other ensembles such as the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, The King’s Singers or the Corsican vocal ensemble Barbara Furtuna. Their most acclaimed recordings include La Tarantella, All’Improvviso (with Gianluigi Trovesi), Los Impossibles (with The King’s Singers), as well as the CDs for Virgin Classics, Teatro d’amore (with Philippe Jaroussky and Nuria Rial), Via Crucis (with Barbara Furtuna), Vespro della Beata Vergine by Claudio Monteveri, Los pájaros perdidos or Mediterráneo (with the fado singer, Misia).

In 2012, L’Arpeggiata was the first Baroque ensemble to become artist-in-residence at New York Carnegie Hall.

Since the ensemble’s founding, L’Arpeggiata has released eighteen hit albums. Christina Pluhar and her musicians dedicate their CD projects to an experimental style, speaking the strict language of historically informed performance practice with equal virtuosity. The work is always found on all sides at the highest interpretive and musical levels.

L’Arpeggiata CD recordings for Alpha, Naïve and Erato/Warner Classics labels are not only best sellers but have also won numerous awards, including the Echo Klassik and the Edison Prize.

Maria del Mar Bonet

Maria del Mar Bonet has been on stage for over fifty years, with the entitlement that only a few have of stepping from decade to decade feeling equally loved and respected.

In 2017 she celebrated her 50 YEARS ON STAGE throughout the Catalan region. In the Balearic Islands and the Valencian region and Catalonia towns and cities; in Spain’s capital cities, but also at the Cairo Opera House in Egypt, in Turin and Rome, in Tunis, and at the Parthenon’s Herodes Atticus Colosseum– on the Acropolis of Athens –, in a grand concert broadcast by Greece’s National Television.

She is one of the worldwide song’s great reference voices. The Mediterranean has always been her artistic and personal life’s benchmark, considering it her source of inspiration.

From her vast Balearic flagship, she has showcased music in her language around the world, has partnered with scores of artists from across the globe and published almost forty albums that assemble a solid and consistent career, based on her relationship with the audience, on her hundreds and hundreds of concerts’ venues.

Vincenzo Capezzuto

Alto

He considers himself a dancer and has performed as a soloist at the San Carlo Opera in Naples, the English National Ballet, the Julio Bocca Argentine Ballet, the MMcompany and the Michele Merola’s Aterballetto directed by Mauro Bigonzetti. His worldwide dance career involves performances choreographed by such eminent figures as Mauro Bigonzetti, William Forsythe, Roland Petit, Alvin Ailey, George Balanchine and Ohad Naharin. Capezzuto’s numerous awards, mainly for popularising Italian dance and music abroad, include the Leonide Massine Award, the Roscigno Danza Best Dancer of 2005 and the Giuliana Penzi Award of 2012.

However, Vincenzo Capezzuto is also an excellent singer. Endowed with a subtle youthful voice close to alto, he fits perfectly with L’Arpeggiata’s aesthetic, the ensemble he has been collaborating with since their first joint album, Via Crucis, in 2010. They continued this relationship on three subsequent records: Los pájaros perdidos, which contains traditional and baroque Latin American music; Mediterráneo, with namesake music; and Music for a While, combining jazz improvisations with Henry Purcell’s music, whose compositions dazzled thoroughly. Capezzuto, accompanied by Cecilia Bartoli, also joined the recording of the Gondola album by the Il Pomo d’Oro ensemble, where he provided a brilliant interpretation of the 18th-century Venetian gondolier songs.

Vincenzo Capezzuto’s career as a singer extends beyond his collaboration with L’Arpeggiata, including song and dance collaborations with Accordone at the Salzburg Festival. The following year, Christina Pluhar – artistic director of L’Arpeggiata, invited Capezzuto to dance and sing with the European Baroque Orchestra in a baroque and traditional songs repertoire. Vincenzo Capezzuto has also performed on several prestigious stages, including New York Carnegie Hall, the London BBC Proms, the Wigmore Hall and the Accademia Filarmonica Romana. Along with Claudio Borgianni, Vincenzo founded Soqquadro Italiano. In this artistic project, music, dance, and acting are the expressive elements at the service of various programs, such as Da Monteverdi a Mina, Who is Afraid of the Baroque, and Antonio Vivaldi’s STABAT MATER.