Jacopo Peri (1561-1633) - Il Zazzerino - PREMIERE

Jacopo Peri 

(1561-1633)

Il Zazzerino

Hille Perl (vada)

Hille Perl (liro)

Ellen Hargis (sop)

Andrew Lawrence-King (hp)

Paul O'Dette (citt)

Paul O'Dette (gtr )

PREMIERE

This collection focuses on Peri’s role in shaping the new manner of solo singing that arose in Florence at the turn of the seventeenth century. Peri’s early career is bound up in his rivalry with that other supreme tenor, Giulio Caccini. Peri pipped Caccini to the title of first-ever opera composer in 1596, but waited until 1609 to publish an anthology of songs (Caccini’s Le nuove musiche had appeared as early as 1602). Peri’s Le varie musiche is indeed that: a wonderfully varied collection demonstrating an impressive command of the voice’s technical and emotional registers.

Ellen Hargis can hardly be accused of overplaying the music’s virtuosity; she seems more interested in bringing out its lyricism than in impressing the listener with its flamboyance - or hers. There is a natural progression from the unassuming but delightfully tuneful arias to more serious settings of madrigalian texts (including a number of Petrarchian sonnets) , culminating in theatrical songs like Uccidimi, dolore, one of many women’s laments from this period, and at more than eight minutes’ duration virtually a scena in itself. In this last piece I sometimes missed the acuity and intensity of declamation of native Italian or other romance-language singers (for example Maria Cristina Kiehr in her recent Monteverdi anthology on Harmonia Mundi, 8/99) , but to be fair Hargis’s enunciation (here and elsewhere) is perfectly intelligible.

The most striking success of this recital is the evident rapport that Hargis and her continuo group have established. At times (as in the lament) the effect is a touch too contrived for my taste, but it is done superbly: each musician makes a telling contribution. The overall result may at first seem understated, but repeated listening pays real dividends. The sound-recording is lucid and captures Hargis’s voice admirably.'