Luigi Rossi : La Lyra d’Orfeo & Arpa Davidica

CD I - La Lyra d’Orfeo

1. Giovanni Felice Sances // Sinfonia  // Language : instrumental // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar
2. Luigi Rossi // Vaghi rivi // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Véronique Gens
3. Luigi Rossi // Begl’occhi, che dite // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Véronique Gens
4. Luigi Rossi // Dal imperio d’amore // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Véronique Gens
5. Luigi Rossi, arr. C. Pluhar // Mio ben // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Véronique Gens  
6. Luigi Rossi // Dormite, begl’occhi // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar
7. Luigi Rossi, arr. C. Pluhar // Questo picciolo rio // Language : Italian // Véronique Gens
8. Luigi Rossi, arr. C. Pluhar // Se dolente // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Véronique Gens
9. Luigi Rossi // Ballo di Fantasmi // Language : Italian // Véronique Gens
10. Luigi Rossi // La bella più bella il cor mi ferì // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Véronique Gens
11. Luigi Rossi // Ritornello // Language : instrumental // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar
12. Luigi Rossi, arr. C. Pluhar // Al soave spirar (Lamento d’Arione) // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Véronique Gens
13. Luigi Rossi // Lasciate Averno // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Véronique Gens

CD II - Arpa Davidica

1. Luigi Rossi // Language : Italian // Dopo lungo penare // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Jakub Józef Orliński
2. Luigi Rossi, arr. C. Pluhar // M’uccidete, begl’occhi // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Christina, Philippe Jaroussky 
3. Luigi Rossi // Ai sospiri, ai dolori // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Céline Scheen, Philippe Jaroussky
4. Marco Marazzoli (Marco dell’Arpa), arr. C. Pluhar // Dal cielo cader vid’io due stelle // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Jakub Józef Orliński
5. Luigi Rossi // Anime, voi che sete delle furie d’abisso // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Philippe Jaroussky
6. Luigi Rossi // Gelosia, ch’a poco a poco nel mio cor serpendo vai // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Valer Sabadus
7. Luigi Rossi // Sol per breve momento // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Giuseppina Bridelli
8. Anonym, arr. C. Pluhar // Dimmi, sogno pittore // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Jakub Józef Orliński
9. Luigi Rossi // Tra romite contrade (Lamento d’Olimpia) // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Giuseppina Bridelli
10. Luigi Rossi // Lascia speranza, ohimè! // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Céline Scheen
11. Giovanni Felice Sances, arr. C. Pluhar // Presso l’onde tranquillo // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Philippe Jaroussky
12. Luigi Rossi, arr. C. Pluhar // L'Avigone. Corrente // Language : instrumental // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar

CD III - Arpa Davidica

1. Luigi Rossi, arr. C. Pluhar // Quando spiega la notte // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Céline Scheen
2. Luigi Rossi // Mostro con l’ali nere // // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Giuseppina Bridelli
3. Luigi Rossi // Fantasia. Les pleurs d’Orphée // Language : instrumental // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar
4. Luigi Rossi // Erminia sventurata, ove t’aggiri? // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Giuseppina Bridelli
5. Luigi Rossi, arr. C. Pluhar // Io piangea appresso d’un rio // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Jakub Józef Orliński
6. Luigi Rossi, arr. C. Pluhar // Dove mi spingi, amor // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Giuseppina Bridelli
7. Luigi Rossi, arr. C. Pluhar // Sinfonia avanti al prologo // Language : instrumental // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar
8. Luigi Rossi, arr. C. Pluhar // Taci, ohimè // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Céline Scheen, Valer Sabadus
9. Anonym // Sera alquanto addormentato // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Céline Scheen
10. Luigi Rossi, arr. C. Pluhar // Lagrime, dove siete ? // Language : Italian // L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, Valer Sabadus
11. Luigi Rossi // Passacaille del seigneur Luigi // Language : instrumental // Christina Pluhar

The latest album from Christina Pluhar and her instrumental ensemble L’Arpeggiata sheds new light on the chamber cantatas of 17th century Italian composer, Luigi Rossi. He wrote more than 300 of these works and Christina Pluhar’s new double album includes an impressive number of 21 world premiere recordings, which are the fruit of Christina Pluhar’s research among music manuscripts held in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Vatican Library.

“These cantatas are works of rare beauty,” says Pluhar, who describes Luigi Rossi as “one of the shining lights of 17th-century Italian vocal music. Supremely inventive and extremely versatile, he juxtaposed styles within a single work, often shifting from intense recitative to mellifluous song, while also venturing into daring harmonic regions.”

She has assembled a dazzling line-up of singers to perform the cantatas: sopranos Véronique Gens and Céline Scheen, mezzo-soprano Giuseppina Bridelli, and countertenors Philippe Jaroussky, Jakub Józef Orliński and Valer Sabadus.

Luigi Rossi, born in Puglia in 1597, was highly successful in his time, serving three of the most illustrious Italian dynasties – the Borghese and Barberini families in Rome and the Medici in Florence – and subsequently France’s King Louis XIV. His L'Orfeo, which received its premiere in Paris in 1647, was among the first operas to be staged in France. Rossi is also associated with the first Parisian appearances by castrato singers – their voice-type was not integral to France’s musical traditions.

Rossi had gone to Paris in 1646, where he joined the Barberinis, exiled from Rome the previous year following controversy over their handling of Papal funds. Some of their other musicians, including several castratos, also went to France with them. In Rome they had been noted for marking important occasions with commissions for masses, oratorios and operas, among them Rossi’s Palazzo incantato (Enchanted Palace), inspired by Orlando Furioso, which enjoyed a great success in 1642.

At the time, the man who wielded the most power in France was not the King – just four years old when he came to the throne in 1643 – but his godfather and Chief Minister, Cardinal Mazarin. Mazarin, an Italian by birth, enjoyed close links with the Barberini family, which had played an important role in furthering his diplomatic career in the 1630s. He was also a great advocate of Italian style in the arts and it was thanks to him that L’Orfeo, a sumptuously scored work, was lavishly staged at the Palais-Royal before Louis XIV and his mother, Queen Anne of Austria. Rossi returned to Italy in 1650 and in due course another Italian-born composer of opera, Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-87), became the musical supremo at the court of the Sun King.