DE SELMA Y SALAVERDE, Bartolomé - Canzon prima a doi 1638 - MERUM ensemble

Valerio Latartara, violin Andrés García Fraile, viola da gamba Giorgos Kakitsis, theorbo DE SELMA Y SALAVERDE, Bartolomé - Canzon prima a doi (1638) Bartolomé de Selma y Salaverde was a member of a large family of musicians and wind instrument makers of the turn of the seventeenth century. Born in Cuenca and an Augustinian friar, he was a great bassoon virtuoso, which led him to be hired by Archduke Leopold at Innsbruck around the 1630s. His only surviving collection of music is "Canzoni, fantasie et correnti da suonar", published in Venice in 1638. It is a very vivid and in a way very modern music, thanks to continuous contrasts of tempi and dynamics. The parts with virtuosic diminutions spread also to the bass line, probably played by Selma himself. Here, however, the viola da gamba replaces the bassoon, although his skill can still be appreciated in long and quickly articulated phrases where there would not be much time left to breathe. This canzon for soprano and bass is at once melancholy, agitated, and even festive. A whole landscape in a nutshell.