Anna Bon di Venezia is a fascinating figure among women composers in the 1700’s. Among the rarity of women composers, she is an enigma because not much is known of her.
Her only biography is available from the frontispieces and from the dedications of the only three works printed by her and published between 1756 - the year Mozart was born, and 1759 at the "Vedova di Baltas Schmidt in Norimerga".
Vladimir Soares and Fabian Grosch perform the the six sonatas for flute op. 1 composed by Anna in 1756 at the age of 16. Anna Bon made herself heard offor the first time with this publication. Each of the sonatas is in three movements: a fast centre movement is framed by a slow introductionand a slow closing movement. This formal pattern shows more German than Italian influence. Stylistically, the sonatas are best perhaps comparable to works by J. J. Quantz and C. Ph. E. Bach, musicians at the Prussian court of Friedrich the Great, where Anna Bon stayed as a child.
As much as we know about Hildegard of Bingen, a German Benedictine abbess who set up her own monastery on the banks of the Rhine and became famous for her religious thinking and visions, there are so many questions we may never answer. This, in part, is what makes her music at once fascinating and mysterious. First, did she herself write the ethereal, soaring chants attributed to her? She lived long before the modern idea of a composer, or indeed an artist of any kind, had taken hold. That would only happen centuries later. Art in the 12th century was made to serve God. The individual maker’s name was rarely known.
Hildegard’s music might have been a collaborative process, between herself and her nuns. It’s possible that Hildegard initiated a melody, in her own distinctive way, and someone else wrote it down. Was she, and is she, as we encounter on this disc in the music of Silvia Berg, primarily an inspiration? These are matters to ponder, as are all the variants of preparing music for the daily liturgy in a cloistered religious dwelling, when we listen to the remarkable body of works associated with her: 75 ‘symphoniae’ , known as the Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum (The Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations), and a sacred morality drama, Ordo Virtutum. Her predominant subjects are the Holy Trinity and the Virgin Mary, angels, the living light, local saints and, above all, God’s creation of humanity. The rich language of her texts is vividly informed by her own taxonomies of plants, trees, animals, fish, precious stones and minerals (in written works such as Physica, or Causae et Curae).
Only much later, at the start of her fifth decade, did Hildegard find her own creative and intellectual voice, setting up a monastery, writing theological tracts, communicating with popes, bishops and emperors, fighting against corruption in the Church, her thoughts often shaped by the visions which had been central to her life since childhood. Described as ‘the sybil of the Rhine’, and known far beyond her native land, Hildegard died in her Rupertsberg monastery in 1179. At the time of her death, witnesses recorded, a ‘manifest miracle’ occurred. Two arcs of brilliant colour appeared in the sky, broadening to the fours corners of the earth, and the moon was full. Immediately revered as a saint, Hildegard of Bingen was officially canonised in 2012.
DONNE BAROCCHE presents a selection of works by women composers from 17th to 18th century for soprano & continuo as well as harpsichord solo including a few world première performances.
Winner of the “ Air Europa Classical Act of the Year Award 2013”, lyric coloratura soprano Gabriella Di Laccio enjoys an international career that spans the genres of opera, oratorio and chamber music. Especially known for her virtuoso voice and much sought after in Baroque music she is also a devoted performer of contemporary repertoire. AUDACIUM Baroque Ensemble brings together a group of musicians committed to performance on period instruments and to musicological research on 17th and 18th century repertoire.
Each week, we will post a different album that will make your Wednesday way easier!
HOMAGE, by Drama Musica
About the album:
The culture of Italy influenced Brazil in many ways, including the music, not only with traditional Italian songs but also by merging with other Brazilian music styles. Brazilian soprano Susie Georgiadis and Italian pianist Angiolina Sensale pay homage to their home countries and their women composers by presenting this programme full of history, colors and musical richness. Homage includes a few world premiere recordings by several historical composers as well as new works written by Catarina Domenici. Soprano Susie Georgiadis was born in Brazil to a Greek father and a German mother. This extraordinary cultural melting-pot permitted her to develop an extremely wide range of musical interest. An artist with a great sensitivity during interpretation combined with a warm velvet voice and a stage presence of magnetic effect, her exquisite musicality allows quite an uncommon eclectic use of her voice encompassing different styles, from operas up to contemporary pieces. A native of Voghera, Angiolina Sensale graduated from the conservatory “G. Verdi” in Milano. She received several awards from national and international competitions and has performed professionally with several chamber ensembles.
29 JANUARY
MARIE BLANCHE SELVA - FRANCE Born 29 January More about her
