Critics Pick

Celesti Fiori - Madrigals and Motets of Alessandro Grandi

Magnificat

On Valentine's Day weekend, Magnificat will perform songs about love - both spiritual and worldly - by Alessandro Grandi in a program that features soprano Laura Heimes. Grandi was a prolific and influential composer, well respected during his life, but rarely performed today - just the sort of music Magnificat loves to explore!

Born in 1586 in Ferrara, Grandi most likely studied with Giovanni Gabrieli in Venice. He held several positions in Ferrara as maestro di cappella at different cathedrals and academies in Ferrara before winning a post at the Baislica of San Marco in Venice in 1617. Eventually he become vice maestro di capella to Claudio Monteverdi. In 1627, he accepted the position of maestro di capella in nearby Bergamo where he succumbed to the plague of that struck Northern Italy in 1630.

Grandi was one of the most popular composers of his day; his works were published throughout Italy, Germany and Holland and continued to be reprinted long after his death. Though he wrote in many genres, he is most noted for his vocal chamber works that often incorporated violins and defined the concertato style that was developing in the early decades of the 17th century. His unfailing melodic gift, coupled with his daring use of chromaticism and harmonic language, gives his music an immediate emotional appeal - both intimate and powerful - that sounds fresh even four centuries later. The program takes its title from a collection of motets Grandi published in 1625.

The program will also feature violinists Rob Diggins and David Wilson, playing instrumental chamber music published in Venice during Grandi's tenure at San Marco. The first decades of the 17th century saw the emergence of virtuoso instrumental music in the form of sonatas, canzoni, and other forms for one, two or more solo violins above a basso continuo. Magnificat's program will include music by colleagues of Grandi and Monteverdi in Venice like Massimiliano Neri, organist at San Marco, and Biagio Marini and Dario Castello, who were prominent musicians in Venice at the time.

Magnificat will be performing several works on this program that have not been performed since the 17th century. Building on the seminal work of the late Jerome Roche, the American Musicological Society has announced plans to publish the complete wokrs of Grandi, a multi-volume effort that will not be published for several years. We are grateful that the General Editor of the edition and Magnificat Advisory Board member Prof. Jeffrey Kurtzman has generously arranged to provide transcriptions of many of the as yet unpublished works for Magnificat's performances.