Arcadia

This CD is an abstract extension of the fantasy and illusion of the Arcadian world, the songs of shepherds, and stories of love, reworked in the fancies of the performer with the violin as singer and storyteller.

• Performers: Leonor de Lera (violin, dir.), Nacho Laguna (theorbo, guitar), Pablo FitzGerald (archlute, guitar)
• Label: Note 1 Music/Panclassics
• Recording: Estudio Torrelaguna, Spain (June 2023)
• Sound: Ken Yoshida

The album’s premise is to provide instrumental arrangements (read: diminutions) of vocal works, from Philippe Verdelot and Guilio Caccini to Monteverdi and Sigismondo d’India. Upon starting this CD I was reminded of the single track Enrico Onofri contributed with I Bassifondi’s album, Roma ‘600 called “Foscarini’s Groove”.

Part of it was the sound of Onofri’s violin compared to de Lera’s. I wasn't surprised to learn she studied with Rachel Podger and Enrico Onofri.

De Lera’s album however is an entire collection in that vein which I really enjoyed. Anyone who is on the fence about violin vibrato? Listen to how she authentically uses it as an ornament. Each time the result was so sweet.

Anyone interested in music from the 1600s will certainly recognize some of the pieces on this recording. It’s how similar they are to our memory with how they go in different directions that make each new track a treasured discovery. Track 6, Monteverdi’s Lamento della Ninfa is such a discovery, clearly we know the line sung by the soprano. D Lera’s study and practice of diminutions pays off, I think here, to provide us at times idiomatic but also surprising solutions for how to extrapolate the main idea in the music with satisfying embellishment.

And just like jazz, we should expect further performances to vary in solutions found.

The thirteenth track, featuring a five voice madrigal from Ruffo, loses something of the polyphonic writing but having a solo instrument on top is no less interesting, at least coupled with the limited harmonic language. The style adopted here seems perfectly historical in context, revealing the ways in which instrumentalists felt empowered to capture the power of sung music with the craft of practice and their instruments. And yes, I was feeling that final note and that nice slow, wide ornament.

The final track, Monteverdi’s Zefiro Torna I wish had two equal voices playing, but de Lera’s solution with a single instrument leading is nevertheless satisfying, betraying anyone not familiar with the original for two tenors no less engaged with her trio’s music making.

Sound-wise, de Lera’s instrument has a very upfront, nasal sound which at first listen bothered me. The way her instrument comes to us was tempered over multiple listens and across different equipment. The balance among the trio is well presented, with no real balance issues, once you’re used to de Lera always being up front.

This was a fun album which I know I’ll return to often.