ENSEMBLE SINIGAGLIA
LA CRAVA MANGIA IJ MORE

Songs of the Piedmontese tradition
Paola Lombardo: voice
Vivaldi Guitar Trio: guitars
Folkclub-Ethnosuoni ES 5370 / CD - 2008

Music transcription and arranging are as old as music: from time immemorial any composition characterized by some amount of success has not failed to pass from its original form to the most different and farthest destinations. Long time before the advent of the omnivorous piano, the Renaissance and Baroque Great Fathers used to turn light songs into solemn masses, to arrange vocal polyphonies for instrumental formations and even to tamper with texts for converting the sacred into the profane and vice versa. Such even too uninhibited practice sometimes resulted into paradoxical effects. Due to the harpsichord version composed by J. S. Bach, Alessandro Marcello lost the paternity of his beautiful concerto for oboe and strings to the advantage of Bach himself. Vivaldi (whose works often underwent to transcription by Bach), and his more renowned brother Benedetto; in the end such work was reduced (this time not due to Johann Sebastian) to an unidentified "Anonymous Venetian" into the title of a famous tear-jerking film of 1970.

On the contrary, really anonymous are the folk songs
-with the exception of Brofferio- collected into this CD, pieces which the Ensemble Sinigaglia have selected from the wide repertoire of Piedmontese folklore made known by Costantino Nigra (for the texts) and Leone Sinigaglia himself (for the melodies). Over the about one hundred years after the early explorations carried out by the maestro of Turin on the Cavoretto hill, the "old folk songs of Piedmont" (to quote Nigra's own words) have seen a remarkable reawakening of interest and, what is more, performance. Starting from the historic transcriptions made by Sinigaglia himself (for voice and piano, choir, voice and string quartet, voice and orchestra) the elaborative pratice has extended to various vocal and instrumental formations both classical and folk, or even ethnic. In our case, the sound material has been treated by accompanying the voice with an ensemble of three guitars at times integrated by strings and piano. 

Thus, no hurdy-gurdies, pipes or drums, but the overlapping interweaving of eighteen strings of which the arrangements by Marco Buccolo and Carmelo Lacertosa ( in alphabetical order) make maximum use with cautious wisdom, far from indulging, on one side, to tavern songs and, on the other side, from venturing on tortuous experimental remakes. 

On the contrary: both the pieces including the voice and the instrumental pieces tell their stories, whether merry or sad, providing some old melodies of ours, through a frame of careful and affectionate modernity, an enjoyable as well as original interpretation.

Roberto Cognazzo

VIVALDI GUITAR TRIO
CONTEMPORANEA

Italian authors for three guitars
Vivaldi Guitar Trio: guitars
MAP -LR CD 085 / CD - 2002

The guitar lends itself -beyond its prominent solo role- to join many and various instrumental combinations. The ductility of this instrument has more and more stimulated composers to make the most of of its technical and expressive resources even within the "inter pares" dialogue, that is the duo, the trio, the quartet as well as the octet and other guitar formations. This CD is dedicated to the guitar trio through a wide survey of Italian composers from our age who became fascinated by this ensemble, not only because of its perfect sound balance but also for its various combinations of dialogic interlacement. Except for Ennio Morricone's and Franco Margola's "recovered" piece, all music here recorded has been commissioned by the Vivaldi Guitar Trio. They are now a solid and well-tried reality within the concert activity of today, particularly regarding the spread of a repertoire bringing about further and fruitful developments.

Riccardo Vianello

VIVALDI GUITAR TRIO
ORIGINAL 20th CENTURY WORKS FOR THREE GUITARS

Vivaldi Guitar Trio: guitars
RAINBOW classic - RW 9604 / CD - 1996

In the guitar production of our century -remarkable both for its quantity and for its quality- composers have often shown to appreciate the polyphonic aspect of the instrument, its ability to "sing" and to create thick and fascinating interlacements of sounds. This polyphonic -and imitative- disposition can be found in almost every piece included in this CD, covering a period that ranges from 1925 (Hindemith's Rondò) up to now (Bernardi and Gangi). The language choice shows a certain coherence that privileges a writing style which is vaguely tonal, and which is mixed with the musical experiences of the historical vanguards.

Giovanni Gioanola