Ricercari & Ritrovari Christophe Desjardins

• Ivan Fedele (b. 1953): Ritrovari:
• 1 Ritrovari: 1 Preludio 01:06
• Domenico Gabrielli (1659 - 1690): Ricercar:
• 2 Ricercar: I 01:36
• Ivan Fedele: Ritrovari:
• 3 Ritrovari: 2 Ostinato 01:47
• Domenico Gabrielli: Ricercar:
• 4 Ricercar: VII 04:51
• Ivan Fedele: Ritrovari:
• 5 Ritrovari: 3 Corrente I 03:00
• Domenico Gabrielli: Ricercar:
• 6 Ricercar: III 03:27
• Ivan Fedele: Ritrovari:
• 7 Ritrovari: 4 Passacaglia 05:22
• Domenico Gabrielli: Ricercar:
• 8 Ricercar: II 08:03
• Ivan Fedele: Ritrovari:
• 9 Ritrovari: 5 Interludio 02:17
• Domenico Gabrielli: Ricercar:
• 10 Ricercar: V 01:42
• Ivan Fedele: Ritrovari:
• 11 Ritrovari: 6 Corrente II 03:31
• Domenico Gabrielli: Ricercar:
• 12 Ricercar: IV 04:01
• 13 Ricercar: Vi 04:04
• Total Runtime 44:47

Info for Ricercari & Ritrovari

The new record by Christophe Desjardins includes a recording of the solo cello works by Domenico Gabrielli (1659-1689), played as viola solo first time in music history. It also includes the premiere recording of the new composition by Ivan Fedele in reflection with Gabrielli’s masterpiece of the baroque period.

Recording from the best-sounding acoustics of the music room at Villa Medici-Giulini.

On a journey from Palermo to Taormina I am accompanied by the sounds of Domenico Gabrielli’s Ricercari, the oldest composition for cello solo, and I experience — fascinated by the genius of this music — the Sicilian landscape. Soon afterwards I begin to transcribe and to interpret the pieces for viola. The wish arises to ask my Italian artist friend Ivan Fedele to compose reflections to these Baroque works. He explores Gabrielli's gestures and figures and imagines a further journey between Ricercari [from ricercare 'to seek'] and Ritrovari [from ritrovare 'to find'] by creating the sensations of an inner journey through his creative power. — Christophe Desjardins

Ricercari: Domenico Gabrielli, celebrated composer of operas, oratorios and chamber music, and acclaimed cello virtuoso, contributed significantly to freeing the cello from its role as basso continuo and accompanying instrument, creating new, completely independent literature for the individual characteristics of this stringed instrument. Gabrielli wrote the first solo works known to us and revolutionized the world of music with his Ricercari, comparable to Preludes, which seem like free improvisations. Gabrielli was promoted by Francesco II, who reigned in Modena and played the cello himself. Gabrielli was probably involved in the development that the technique and consequently the sound of the cello changed during this time due to the invention of metal wound gut strings. He certainly influenced this innovation, which was so important for him, and which took place in his hometown of Bologna near Modena. These new strings enabled him to realize his polyphonic ideas more virtuously and to articulate them more convincingly. For the first time double stops appeared in the violoncello literature, he worked with unusual modulations, placed melodic independence above harmonic binding and thus opened new horizons with his compositions....

Christophe Desjardins, viola

Christophe Desjardins
is willingly and passionately involved in two complimentary spheres: creation, for which he is an interpreter much sought after by international standing composers, and having the repertoire of his instrument opened to the widest range of audience.

As a soloist, he has premiered works by Berio, Boulez, Boesmans, Jarrell, Fedele, Nunes, Manoury, Pesson, Levinas, Harvey, Widmann, Stroppa, Cresta, Sebastiani and Rihm.

He plays as a soloist with such orchestras as the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the NDR, WDR and SWR Sinfonie Orchestern, the Orchestra of the Toscanini Foundation, the National Orchestra of Lyon, the Portuguese Symphonic Orchestra and many other ensembles and orchestras throughout Europe.

After his solo appearance with the Théâtre de la Monnaie of Brussels, he became a member of the Ensemble InterContemporain.

His discography includes Diadèmes by Marc-André Dalbavie, under the direction of Pierre Boulez, Surfing by Philippe Boesmans, AssonanceIV and …someleavesII… by Michael Jarrell, LesLettresenlacéesII by Michaël Levinas and SequenzaVI by Luciano Berio, recorded for Deutsche Grammophon.

His CD Voix d’Alto (Viola voices), dedicated to the performance of Luciano Berio and Morton Feldman’s works, was published in January, 2005, with the label Aeon; it has since received the most prestigious acclaim from the French press: Diapason d’Or, 4F from Télérama, Choc du Monde de la Musique.

In order to make music be discovered and perceived in a different way, he has created productions involving other arts (poetry, dance, video…): Once upon a time the viola, Viola/Multiples, Four Fragments for Harold, Violist Songs…

Christophe Desjardins plays a viola by Francesco Goffriller made in Venice around 1720.

He teaches at the Hochschule für Musik DEtmold (Germany) and at the CNSM in Lyon

Booklet for Ricercari & Ritrovari