Gems of the Polish Baroque Ensemble Giardino di Delizie & Ewa Anna Augustynowicz

• Marcin Mielczewski (1600 - 1651):
• 1Canzon seconda a 205:26
• Kaspar Foerster (1616 - 1673):
• 2La Sidon, Sonata a 3 in F Major09:42
• Mikolaj Zielenski (1560 - 1620):
• 3Communiones totius anni. Fantazja II03:47
• Adam Jarzebski (1590 - 1649):
• 4Chromatica - Concerto a 304:36
• Kaspar Foerster:
• 5Sonata a 3 in C Minor07:06
• Adam Jarzebski:
• 6Cantate domino - Concerto a 204:26
• Kaspar Foerster:
• 7Sonata a 3 in G Major10:00
• Adam Jarzebski:
• 8Berlinesa - Concerto a 304:01
• Kaspar Foerster:
• 9La Pazza. Sonata a 3 in D Minor07:06
• Marcin Mielczewski:
• 10Canzon prima a 211:09
• Kaspar Foerster:
• 11Sonata a 3 in C Minor10:13
• Adam Jarzebski:
• 12Tamburetta - Concerto a 302:57
• Stanislaw Sylwester Szarzynski (1650 - 1713):
• 13Trio Sonata in D Major06:06
• Mikolaj Zielenski:
• 14Communiones totius anni. Fantazja III03:13
• Kaspar Foerster:
• 15Sonata a 3 in B Major07:42
• Total Runtime01:37:30

Info for Gems of the Polish Baroque

Vibrant chamber music by little-known 17th-century composers including world-premiere recordings.

Italy was a reference point for the cultural élite of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which looked to Venice for its republican system, and to Rome for its Christian heritage. Seventeenth-century Polish singers, players and composers soon adopted Italian manners, both at home and abroad, and many courts established Polish-Italian ensembles, to which the all-female Ensemble Giardino di Delizie is a unique modern counterpart.

Mikolaj Zielenski was the first Polish composer to publish his works in Italy: a huge collection of sacred works originating from Venice in 1611 and including a pair of instrumental fantasias featured on this album. Adam Jarzebsky (1590-1649) was another cosmopolitan figure, a violinist who worked in royal courts in Germany and Italy and whose music naturally absorbs the idioms of his adopted countries. Marcin Mielczewski (c. 1651) was a colleague of Jarzebsky’s at the royal Polish court under the period of Swedish occupation, and Kaspar Förster (1616-1673) studied under Carissimi in Rome before returning to Warsaw and then to Danzig, the city of his birth; his Italianate compositions include the trio sonatas which here receive their first recordings.

The musicians of Ensemble Giardino di Delizie aspire to the Baroque aesthetic of ‘saper ben parlare per ben suonare’; thus they take their cue from their fluency in both Polish and Italian, and a phonetic analysis of each language, in order to inflect their interpretations. Full of both suave, Corellian phrasing and lively Polish rhythms, their performances are unfailingly intense and exciting. Founded in 2014 by the violinist Ewa Anna Augustynowicz, the ensemble is joined here by a quartet of guests: Elena Bianchi (dulcian), Fabrizio Carta (theorbo), Amalia Ottone (viola da gamba) and Marco Contessi (violone).

The Ensemble Giardino di Delizie made its debut on Brilliant Classics with trio sonatas by Carlo Ambogio Lonati. The album met with an enthusiastic response from the critics: ‘The performance sounds completely natural, full of spontaneity and bursting energy… An album of real discovery, then, superbly played and well recorded, in a close yet resonant sound well suited to the interpretation.’ (The Classic Review)

‘There’s a fluidity in the ensemble’s playing that makes Lonati’s music sparkle… Violinists Ewa Anna Augustynowicz and Katarzyna Solecka play with equal skill, letting the listener enjoy the exchange between them… A delightful listening experience from beginning to end.’ (WTJU.fm)

The close relationship between Italy and Poland goes back many centuries. Especially during the Baroque era the contact was intense. The republic of Venice was seen as a role model of political innovation, whereas Rome was firmly established as the international center of the powerful Catholic Church. Young Poles visited and studied at the universities of Bologna and Padua, imbibing knowledge and culture, whereas the Polish nobility invited Italian musicians at their courts.

This new recording presents Polish composers from the Baroque, in whose works influences from their Italian contemporaries can be found. The composers presented are Marcin Mielczewski, Kaspar Foerster, Mikolai Zilenski, Adam Jarzebski, Stanislav Szarzinski, in Sonatas, Canzonas, Fantasias and other Baroque forms.

Played on period instruments by Giardino di Delizie, a female Polish-Italian Early Music group, researching and performing forgotten treasures from the Italian and Polish Baroque. They played in such ensembles as Europa Galante, Les Eléments, Quatuor Mosaiques and others. They successfully recorded previously for Brilliant Classics a CD with Sinfonias by Lonati.

Ensemble Giardino di Delizie
Ewa Anna Augustynowicz, artistic director
Guests:
Elena Bianchi, dulcian
Fabrizio Carta, theorbo
Amalia Ottone, viola da gamba
Marco Contessi, violone

The Ensemble Giardino di Delizie
is a Roman Baroque Ensemble and was founded in 2014 by its artistic director Ewa Anna Augustynowicz, PhD. The ensemble is a collective of Polish, Italian and Eastern European musicians and has a varying structure from string duets to small chamber orchestra and its musicians specialized with internationally renowned masters, such as Enrico Onofri, Marco Ceccato, Enrico Gatti, Andrea Coen, Giovanni Togni, Dmitry Sinkowsky, Amandine Beyer, Marco Testori. Franco Pavan etc. In addition to the high level of training and specialization, the members of the group work regularly with different ensembles including Les Eléments, Divino Sospiro, Capella Cracoviensis, Accademia Montis Regalis, Europa Galante, Arianna Art Ensemble, Collegium Pro Musica, Quatuor Mosaiques, Concerto Romano, Accordone and Pomo d'Oro.

Alongside the musical activity, the ensemble also conducts research in the field of musicology with particular regard to the Roman and Polish Baroque repertoire, rediscovering forgotten authors and trying to draw bridge between these two countries. Due to its unique binational character, the ensemble is particularly interested in the peculiarities of their own musical languages. The musicians are strongly convinced of the need of “saper ben parlare per ben suonare”, thus their research starts with a proper phonetic analysis of each langugaes to make them present in the execution and interpretation of the musical pieces. Hence, their performances are rich in sweet tones of Italian Corellian passages on the one side and and vigorous and lively sounds of the Polish dances on the other side. The ensemble’s performances, particularly intense and exciting, are in fact the result of extensive historical surveys to rediscover masterpieces of Italian composers who have had the center of its activities in the Rome of Alessandro Stradella, Arcangelo Corelli and Alessandro Scarlatti during the long poignant and bright sunset of the Roman polyphonic style and those of Polish and Italian composers such as Marcin Mielczewski, Adam Jarzebski, Tarquinio Merula who had their centre of activity at the court of the Polish kings.

The ensemble is based in Rome and since its foundation pursued its activity in important institutions such as the Circle of the Armed Forces at the Ministry of Defence in Rome, Umberto Theatre, the Polish Church of St. Stanislaus in Rome, different cultural associations and others. The group participated in festivals such as the Festival of Music Rome; Almisonis Melos Chivasso, Turin; Musica Antica a San Rufo, Rieti; Sulle Ombre del Cusanino Filottrano, Marche; Santa Rita Basilica of Cascia and Concerti di Campagna, Monte Compatri. In August 2016 the ensemble performed with a great success at two important European festivals: the BRQ Vantaa Music Festival (Helsinki) and the Oude Musik Festival (Utrecht). In February 2017 the ensemble went on tournee in Poland giving concerts as a special guest at the Schola Cantorum Early Music Festival in Kalisz, at the Wilanow Palace in Warsaw and for the Societa Dante Alighieri in Katowice. In August 2017 the ensemble played with a great succes at the festival Barok na Spiszu in Poland. In 2018 Giardino di Delizie performed Polish Baroque music in various occasions celebrating 100 anniversary of the Polish independence (Turin University, Societa’ del Giardino in Milan, Museum of Instruments in Rome). In December 2018 the ensemble played in Naples for the concert series organized by Centro della Pietà de’ Turchini. The ensemble has been invited to perform during the Festival de Música Antiga dels Pirineus in Spain in 2019.

Recently, as a result of intense musicological research, the ensemble recorded its first CD for Brilliant Classics with 10 Triosonatas by Carlo Ambrogio Lonati, a still quite unknown Roman Baroque composer. It is the first modern recording of all these sonatas and Carlo Ambrogio Lonati and Roman composers are in focus of ensemble's musicological survey. In April 2019 the group has recorded its second CD, this time of the 17th century Polish Baroque Composers. This CD should be published by Brilliant Classics at the beginning of 2020. The group is already working its 3d CD with never recorded music to be recorded in the Autumn 2019. The musicians of the Giardino di Delizie perform their repertoire on historical instruments, copies of important Italian manufacturers.

This album contains no booklet.