GCD 921506




Title & Reference BERNARDO STORACE Selva di varie compositioni GCD 921506 Performer FABIO BONIZZONI harpsichord & organ Production details Playing time: 74’30 Recorded in Lugano, Switzerland, and Sicily (Italy), in 2001 Engineered by Edoardo Lambertenghi Produced by Gabriele Palomba, Franco Pavan & Fabio Bonizzoni Booklet essays Booklet texts by Stefano Russomanno, Fabio Bonizzoni and Diego Cannizzaro English, French, Spanish, German Full-price digipak Bar code 8 424562 21506 1	Bernardo Storace (fl. 1664) I. Harpsichord 01 Balletto 02 Passagagli in Fe fa ut per b 03 Ciaccona 04 Corrente 05 Ballo della Battaglia 06 Romanesca 07 Aria sopra la Spagnoletta 08 Passagagli sopra D sol re per # 09 Corrente II. Organ 10 Recercar di legature 11 Toccata & Canzon 12 Pastorale 13 Recercar 14 Toccata & Canzon	Complete CD Booklet PDF (458K) Commercial Release Sheet PDF (235K)



		Bernardo Storace, an enigmatic composer about whom hardly anything is known –except for the fact that when his Selva (1664) was published he was assistant maestro di cappella of the Senate in the city of Messina (Sicily)– is a musical bridge between Frescobaldi and Scarlatti. His oeuvre is a fascinating bric-a-brac of pieces: capricci, toccate, canzoni, ricercari, correnti, balletti, gagliarde... Without a doubt, however, the two fundamental pillars of the Selva are, on the one hand, the variations on ostinato figures (as is the case with the Passagagli, the Romanesca and the Spagnoletta), and on the other, a long and hypnotic composition, the Pastorale, which evokes echoes of Sicilian popular music and is built upon an endless pedal tone that seems to presage contemporary minimalist music. With blinding virtuosity and deeply-felt musicality, Fabio Bonizzoni takes us to an intense journey through the Selva. A recording both difficult and complex, full of harmonies and sonorities typical of the Italian Seicento –we might point out the marvellous Sicilian organ from the Abbey of Petralia Sottana–, it is accompanied by the excellent notes written by Stefano Russomanno. Included in this digipak are painstakingly reproduced paintings by Antonello da Messina and Volterrano, all of which will surely make this disc another staple of the Glossa catalogue of Early Music.