Sospiri a due

Janna Kysilko, soprano
Phillip Rukavina, 10-course lute

Coming soon to a socially-distanced garden near you: works by two dazzling composers of the early 17th century, performed by two intrepid artists from Sospiri! With songs for voice and lute by Barbara Strozzi, and lute pieces by Giovanni Kapsberger, we are seizing the waning summer days to bring live music to our dearly missed community. As we expect from Strozzi, these songs are a smorgasbord of rich emotions and harmonies – from the sublime to the silly. Dance pieces by Kapsberger provide effervescent pairings for each course. Join soprano Janna Kysilko and lutanist Phillip Rukavina to get a taste of these rare delicacies.

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The Program

Download the song texts & translations · Read the program notes

Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677)
Lamento (Lagrime mie)

Giovanni G. Kapsberger (1580-1651)
Tocatta 1
Gagliarda 1
Gagliarda 4

Strozzi
Fin che tu spiri
Giusta Negativa

Kapsberger
Gagliarda 5
Gagliarda 9
Gagliarda 10

Strozzi
La sol, fa, re, mi

Kapsberger
Gagliarda 12, Corrente 12, Corrente 2

Strozzi
L’amante segreto

10-course lute by Malcolm Prior, London 1976

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    Notes on the Program – by Josef Nelson

    Sospiri a due combines music of two of the seventeenth century’s greatest virtuosi. These two master performer-composers may have come from dramatically different life circumstances, but each rose to become significant figures in the music culture of their time.

    Johann Hieronymus Kapsberger (1580-1651) – known to Rome as Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger – was in much demand among Rome’s social elites due both to his family’s noble status in the court of Austria’s Imperial House and his own reputation as a virtuoso performer. A favorite of Rome’s powerful Barberini family, his music was regularly performed in the residence of Pope Urban VIII Barberini and the pope’s nephew, Cardinal Francesco Barberini. He worked in the cardinal’s home for thirty years alongside the likes of Frescobaldi, Luigi Rossi, and Stefano Landi. Kapsberger’s pieces often parallel the work of Frescobaldi in their arpeggiation, unusual rhythmic groupings, broken-style figuration and slurred passages. His music was praised by both traditionalist and progressive musical thinkers, with the music theorist and polymath Athanasius Kircher going so far as to call him the successor to Monteverdi.

    Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677), on the other hand, did not come from a noble background. Possibly the illegitimate daughter of Giulio Strozzi, a wealthy poet and librettist living in Venice, she was raised by him and studied with the preeminent opera composer Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676). Strozzi rose to prominence in Venice through the Accademia delgi Unisoni, an intellectual club set up by Giulio Strozzi in Venice in 1637 that gave the young virtuoso cantrice a place to perform. She became well respected among the accademia’s members, moderating debates and developing a wide range of noble and wealthy contacts. She herself was a shrewd business woman, publishing eight volumes of cantatas – more than any composer of her time – and grew wealthy enough that she became an investor and lender of large sums. Her music was described as being marked by wit, elegance, extravagant metaphors, fantastic word play and sensuality, enough to stupefy and dazzle readers or listeners.