Mio caro bene! “RODELINDA”
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL(1685-1759)- arr. C. Hazell
First performed in London in 1725. Set in Milan - Rodelinda is the queen of Lombardi. This is one of Handel’s most successful operas.

Se tu mami (‘If you love me’)
GIOVANNI BATTISTA PERGOLESI (1710-1 736) - arr. D. Golightly.
If you love me, if you sigh
For me alone, gentle shepherd -
The Italian composer, violinist and organist wrote both serious and comic operas as well as church music. He died of tuberculosis aged 26 and afterwards, to capitalize on Pergolesi’s popularity, many works by others were ascribed to him and still commonly are - among them this song ‘Se tu m’ami’.

Danza, danza, fanciulla gentile! (‘Dance o’ dance maiden kind!’)
FRANCESCO DURANTE (1684-1755) - arr. D. Golightly
Italian composer, noted theorist and teacher of Pergolesi, Paisiello and others. This song is one of countless “SOLFEGGIOS” (vocal training exercises) written by Durante to which texts and elaborate piano accompaniments were added in the 19th century.

Amarilli mia bella
GIULIO CACCINI (c.1545-1618) - arr. N. lngman
Amaryllis, my beautiful one, do you not believe
Oh my heart’s sweet desire,
That you are my love?
And if fear assails you,
Do not doubt,
Open my breast
And you will see written on my heart
Amaryllis is my love.

“Amarilli” is from Caccini’s song book “Nuove Musiche” (“New musics”, Florence, 1601) and is a typical example of early monodic style by the composer, singer and teacher at the Medici Court who became famous in his lifetime and well into the 17th Century. His songs circulated internationally and became ‘popular hits’. By 1603 the English musician Peter Philips had transcribed a ‘cover version’ of Amarilli for virginals and in 1610 Robert Dowland, son of the greatest lute player of his age - John Dowland, had included the song in his “Musical Bouquet” with a realization of the bass continuo part for lute.

L’ascia ch'io pianga (‘Let me bemoan my fate’) "RINALDO”
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685-1759) - arr. C. Hazell
Handel’s first opera written for London in 1711; an epic of the crusades in which Rinaldo is the hero.

Che fiero momenta (‘That proud moment’) “ORFEO ED EURIDICE”
CRISTOPH WILLIBALO GLUCK (1714-1787) - arr. D. Golightly
Gluck’s most famous work, the Story of Orpheus (Mezzo) and his beloved wife Euridice (Soprano) First performed in Vienna in 1762.

Lasciatemi morire! (‘No longer let me languish’) “L'ARIANNA”
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI (1567-1643) - arr. R. Parfrey
Monteverdi’s opera “Arianna” was first performed in Mantus in 1608 where it reduced the audience to tears. This lament by Arianna is the only part of this great opera to survive. A new form of dramatic writing had been created that transformed music thereafter.

Sen corre lagnelletta (‘As when a lamb confiding’)
DOMENICO NATALE SARRO (SARRI) (1679-1744) - arr. D. Golightly
Sarro (Sarri) a Neapolitan composer of operas, whose opera “Achille in Sciro” was composed by order of Charles Ill for the official opening of the Teatro San Carlo on 4 November 1737. Few of his works written after 1730 survive.

Caro mio ben
GUISEPPE GIOROANI (GIORDANELLO) (c. 1753-1798) - arr C. Hazell
Italian composer of operas, ballets and songs. The popular song ‘Caro mio ben’ (‘My dear one’) is now ascribed to him. He never left Italy but was formerly confused with Tommaso Giordano, the opera composer who had become famous in London and Dublin.

Tre giorni son che Nina (‘For three long days my Nina upon her bed has lain’)
LEGRENZIO VINCENZO CIAMPI (c. 1719-1762)- arr. R. Parfrey
In February 1748 Ciampi was composer and the music director of the company which presented the first season of Italian comic operas in London at the King’s Theatre. “Tre giorni son che Nina” (also attributed to Pergolesi) became the ‘hit’ song in the opera “Gli tre cicisbei ridicoli”.

Cujus animam gementem
Vidit suum dulcem natum “STABAT MATER”
GIOVANNI BATTISTA PERGOLESI (1710-1736) - arr. D. Golightly
The Stabat Mater for two solo voices (male soprano and alto) and strings was composed at Pozzuoli in 1736 and is Pergolesi’s most famous composition.

Ombra mai fu “SERSE”
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL(1685-1759) arr. C. Hazell
First performed in London 1738. One of Handel’s most popular operas which includes London street songs and contains the only wholly comic character in a Handel opera. Familiarly known as ‘Handel’s Largo’ (with religious connotations), the aria is not sacred and is sung by Xerxes (an eccentric) who has fallen in love with a plane tree and thanks the tree in song, for offering shade on a hot day.

Pur dicesti, o bocca bella (‘Mouth so beautiful’)
ANTONIO LOTTI (1667-1740) - arr. D. Golightly
Italian composer of opera, songs and church music. Lotti was a singer and principal organist at St. Mark’s, Venice from 1704 until his death.

Nel cor piu non mi sento (‘Why feels my heart so dormant’) “LA MOLINARA”
GIOVANNI PAISELLO - arr. D. Golightly
From the opera first performed in Naples in 1789 under the title “L'Amour Cantrastato” and later as “La Molinara” in Vienna in 1790.

Solo per voi (For you alone). Solo Cantata - “PASTORELLA VAGA BELLA”
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685-1759) - arr. G. Brinums
Doubtful Handel - has been attributed to Telemann.

Plaisir d'amour
GIOVANNI PAGLO MARTINI (real name Johann Paul Aegidius Schwarzendorf 1741-1816) aka.‘Martini the German’ (It., Martini I Tedesco) - arr. C. Hazell
The German organist and composer of operas, church and military band music who settled in France and is now remembered for this song ‘Pleasure of Love’.

Per la gloria d'adoravi (‘For the love my heart doth prize, O charmful eyes I would adore ye!’) “GRISELDA”
GIOVANNI BONONCINI (1670-1747) - arr. R. Parfrey
Bononcini was born ten years after A. Scarlatti and fifteen years before Handel. He had a wider audience than either in the early 18th Century. His opera “Griselda” was first performed at the Haymarket Theatre, London in 1722.

Tornami a vagheggiar - “ALCINA”
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685-1759)
First performance London, 1735. Handel’s opera about Alcina. the enchantress, who rules over a magic island was his last successful Italian opera written for London.

Ave Maria
GIULIO CACCINI (c.1545-1618) - arr. G. Brinums
Inessa Galante’s performances and recordings of the Caccini “Ave Maria” have made her famous throughout the World. Inessa ends this programme with a new recording in an arrangement for harpsichord continuo and strings.

INESSA GALANTE

Inese Galante was born in the Latvian capital Riga where she entered the music academy in 1977. Whilst still a student she began her singing career and soon her soprano voice was heared in the Riga Opera House and the cathedral then in other “Eastern” countries Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria and Russia. She became a regular singer at the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg (Lenningrad) and often performed in Moscow, Kiev and Odessa. At that time Galante had no possibility to sing in the “West”, but on an “official” visit to the U.S.A. and Canada with a Latvian Ensemble she received enthusiastic notices from the critics after every performance. Often during this early stage of her career, Inese Galante was told that she would be a great success in the West; at first by a conductor at the Kirov after he had heard her sing Lucia, Violetta and Marguerite (Faust), later in Moscow by the late Sir Yehudi Menuhin after he heard her in the Mozart Requiem. Finally by the conductor Zubin Mehta when he visited her home town of Riga. Inese sang for Mehta - Rosina’s aria from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” and the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 by Villa-Lobos. Mehta was astonished, saying that there were few such singers as Inese in the world and advising her to make a career in America; but as Galante says “in that time the wall between the two worlds was too high!” Finally the wall came down and Inese was free to accept a contract from The Mannheim Opera in Germany, where she made her triumphant debut as Pamina in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” (1992) and where her name is now spelt “IN ESSA”. Acclaimed performances have followed in many european houses. Campion Records gave Inessa Galante a contract in January 1995 after hearing a sample recording of her voice, and by November of that year she had recorded 18 operatic arias and songs in Riga. Despite Galante’s established success in Eastern Europe her Campion CD’s are the first recordings available to the public. It is Galante’s singing of the Ave Maria” by Giulio Caccini on her first CD “Debut" which launched her internationally as a singer of exceptional quality. "Debut” brought critical acclaim and offers of engagements. The first Campion CD, issued in 1995, continues to sell throughout the world (in the spring of 1999 it was awarded a gold disc for sales in Holland).

In August 1999 Campion seized the first opportunity to record her seventh CD for the label in London. Our thanks to the arrangers Georgs Brinums, David Golightly, Chris Hazell, Nick lngman, Raymond Parfrey, to Mark Stephenson and London Musici for their great contribution to this recording.

For more information about the CD’s and the illustrated book “Inessa Galante” a biography by Silvija Lice contact
Campion Records,
1st & 2nd Floors,
7 High Street,
Cheadle,
Cheshire,
SK8 1AX
Telephone: (00 44)161 491 6655
Fax: (00 44)161 491 6688

MARK STEPHENSON

Mark Stephenson the artistic director and principal conductor of London Musici has appeared as a guest conductor with many orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and The Residentie Orkest Den Haag of the Netherlands. He has worked closely with composers including Sir Andrzej Panufnik, Sir Malcolm Arnold and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and has also commissioned works from young composers, including Sally Beamish, Derek Nisbet and Nuno Malo.

Mark Stephenson was appointed Music Director of the Rambert Dance Company in April 1994 - the season culminated in sell-out performances at the London Coliseum.

Winner of a Creative Britons Award in 1998 (sponsored by Prudential, managed by A&B), Mark Stephenson is currently working on contemporary compositions as part of his Hamlyn-Musici Residency in association with the London College of Music and Media at Thames Valley University.

LONDON MUSICI • CONDUCTOR, MARK STEPHENSON

London Musici made their debut at St. John’s Smith Square in April 1988 and were subsequently offered a recording contract with Conifer. The ensemble’s recordings, ranging form Vivaldi to Panufnik, have been internationally praised. In 1994 London Musici was appointed the resident orchestra for The Rambert Dance Company, and they have also performed for the National Trust and at many prestigious festivals including the Warsaw Autumn Festival. Following award winning educational work in association with the Duke of Edinburgh’s award in 1997 the orchestra is developing a new music and media project for young people in West London supported by The Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Mark Stephenson and London Musici were prize winners at the ‘Londoners of the Year’ awards 1998.

Credits

Executive Producer: Alan Wilson Campion Records
Recording Producer: Morten Winding
Balance Engineer: John Dunkerley
Assistant Engineer and Editor: Simon Eaden
Recorded at St. Silas Church, Kentish Town, London on 30 August & 1-2 September 1999
Recorded for Campion Records by John Kehoe Music Production (01920 877021)
Cover photograph by Herbert Klein