Rossi: Cantata in onore di S. Antonio da Padova & Lectio quarta
5/22/2020, 24 Tracks, 1:16:13
Featuring
Elisabetta Pallucchi
Lorenzo Tozzi
Lucia Casagrande Raffi
Romabarocca Ensemble
Girolamo Rossi
Did you know?
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Compositional Technique
The Cantata in onore di S. Antonio features allegorical characters, Merit (soprano) and Glory (contralto), who sing the praises of St. Anthony.
Instruments
The Lectio IV is scored for psaltery and harpsichord, rather than the more common organ, reflecting the custom of performing sacred music in aristocratic Neapolitan homes.
Interpretation
The Romabarocca Ensemble, founded by Lorenzo Tozzi, specializes in rediscovering and performing vast Italian Baroque repertoire using philological execution.
Composer Biography
Girolamo Rossi, an 18th-century Neapolitan composer, is known to have been a 'Neapolitan Chapelmaster' at the Oratory of the SS. Crocefisso dei Cavalieri in Naples.
Composition History
Girolamo Rossi's sacred drama Per la solenne traslazione del sangue del glorioso protettore S. Gennaro was performed in 1768 to thank for the halting of the Vesuvius eruption in 1767.
Cultural Impact
St. Anthony, the subject of the Cantata, was so revered in Naples that he became the city's patron saint from 1799 to 1814, replacing St. Januarius.
Compositional Technique
The Lectio IV by Girolamo Rossi features late baroque, galant, or preclassical elements like diminished sevenths and vocal cadenzas written out to limit improvisation.
