Banchieri: Il Virtuoso

This recording reunites the subject of Il Virtuoso Ridotto, i.e., La Saviezza Giovenile, with the complete Virtuoso Ritrovo Accademico. This latter work is still unedited, and we have made the first attempts at a reconstruction of the score.
Our performance of La Saviezza follows the edition of 1628, which is complete. In a nod towards Il Virtuoso Ridotto, we have taken the third intermedio, Bottigliero e Cantori (found only in the collection of 1607) and have completed the score by inserting the Vinata di Brindesi from Il Festino nella sera del Giovedì Grasso.
In presenting this program, we have drawn inspiration from a “hypothetical meeting of virtuosi”, using for this purpose the game proposed by the plot of La Saviezza as an outline, while the pieces from Il Virtuoso Ritrovo have been inserted into the context from time to time as a sinfonia, intermedio pastorale or commento.
Our aim has been to reconstruct an entertainment in which “Banchierian caprices” alternate with literary texts, thereby underlining the compositional style and the versatility of the composer. Banchieri’s strambotti in Il Virtuoso Ridotto, written per bizzarria (on a lark) and, again, “to escape the hot summers which are harmful, due to idleness”, are alternated with verses by Jacopo Sannazzaro or Giovanni Battista Guarini, and set to music for Il Virtuoso Ritrovo Academico.
A skillful composer, a refined man of letters, a religious spirit, a connoisseur of human foibles, Banchieri enjoys casting an ironic eye on the culture and society of his time.
His musical writing plays between old and new styles just as the texts play with dialects, word games, and shreds of phrases uttered by “spindle merchants” or “youths leaving school” as they continuously interrupt the fragile connecting thread of the madrigal comedy.