Through Dante's Window

We will perform the organ, guitar and vocal music of composers of 16/17 centuries, very rare arias from Italian Renaissance and Barock music like Frescobaldi, Tarquinio Merula, Legrenzi, Cavazzoni, Monteverdi, Rossi, the pieces of Handel.

Full program :

• Girolamo Cavazzoni "Ave Maris Stella" (organ)

• G F Handel "O had I jubil's Lyre" from oratory "Judas Maccabaeus" (organ, voice)

• Enrico Cresci - the piece for guitar solo

Extract from Dante's "The New Life", cap I
"Nine times already since my birth the heaven of light had almost revolved to the self-same point when my mind’s glorious lady first appeared to my eyes, she who was called by many Beatrice (‘she who confers blessing’), by those who did not know what it meant to so name her. She had already lived as long in this life as in her time the starry heaven had moved east the twelfth part of one degree, so that she appeared to me almost at the start of her ninth year, and I saw her almost at the end of my ninth. She appeared dressed in noblest colour, restrained and pure, in crimson, tied and adorned in the style that then suited her very tender age....

From then on I say that Amor governed my soul, which was so soon wedded to him, and began to acquire over me such certainty and command, through the power my imagination gave him, that I was forced to carry out his wishes fully.

He commanded me many times to discover whether I might catch sight of this most tender of angels, so that in my boyhood I many times went searching, and saw her to be of such noble and praiseworthy manners, that certainly might be said of her those words of the poet Homer: ‘She did not seem to be the daughter of a mortal man, but of a god’."

• Luigi Rossi "Io lo vidi, o luci belle" (organ, voice)

Extract from Dante's Purgatory, Canto II:
"And I: “If some new law take not from thee
the memory or the practice of the song
of love, which used to quiet all my longings,
be pleased a little to console therewith
my spirit, which, because of coming here
when in its body, is so sore distressed!”
“The love that talketh with me in my mind,”
he thereupon began to sing so sweetly,
that still within me is its sweetness heard..."

• Giulio Caccini "Arietta" (Voice, organ)

Extract from Dante's Purgatory, Canto VIII:
"It was now the hour, which homeward turns the longing,
and melts the heart of those that sail the sea,
the day they ’ve said goodbye to tender friends;
and thrills with love the pilgrim newly sped,
if from afar he hear a tolling bell,
that seems to mourn the slowly dying day;
when I began to render hearing vain,
and of those souls watch one who, risen up,
was asking for attention with his hand.
He joined his palms, and raising them on high,
turned toward the East his eyes with steadfast gaze,
as if to God he said: “I heed naught else.”
“Ere daylight fadeth” issued from his mouth
with such devoutness, and with notes so sweet,
that I was made unmindful of myself.

• Claudio Monteverdi "Si dolce è il tormento" (guitar, voice)

  • Giovanni Legrenzi "Lumi potete piangere" (organ, guitar, voice)

Extract from Dante's Purgatory, Canto XXIX :
" At its right wheel three Ladies in a ring
came dancing on; the first so red, that hardly
would she be noticed, if in fire she were;
and such the second was, as if her flesh
and very bones were made of emerald;
the third one looked like newly fallen snow;
and now led by the white one they appeared,
now by the red; and from the latter’s song
the others took their time, both slow and fast.
Upon the left hand four, in purple clothed,
were making glad, according to the gait
of one of them with three eyes in her head."

• Girolamo Frescobaldi "Se l'aria spira" (guitar, voice)

Extract from Dante's Purgatory, Canto XXIX:
"And through the illumined air was running now
a gentle melody; hence righteous zeal
made me reproach the hardihood of Eve,
who, while both earth and heaven obedient were,
the only woman, and but just created,
could not endure to stay beneath a veil;
’neath which if she had but devoutly kept,
I should have tasted those unspeakable
delights before, and for a longer time.
While I mid such first fruits of bliss eternal
was going all enrapt, and eager still
for further joys,
in front of us the air
’neath the green boughs became a blazing fire,
and that sweet sound was now known as a song"

• Tarquinio Merula "Canzonetta spirituale sopra alla nanna" (organ, quitar, voice)

Extract from Dante's Paradise, Canto I:
"With eyes fixed wholly on the eternal wheels
stood Beatrice; and I on her fixed mine,
from there above removed. Looking at her,
I such became within, as Glaucus did
on tasting of the herb, which in the sea
made him a fellow of the other Gods.
Transhumanizing could not be expressed
by words; let this case, therefore, him suffice,
for whom Grace holds experience in reserve.
If I, O Love that rulest Heaven, was only
that part of me, which Thou didst last create,
Thou know’st, that with Thy Light didst raise me up.
When the rotation Thou, by being longed for,
dost make eternal, drew me to itself
by harmonies distributed and tuned
by Thee, it seemed that so much of the sky
was by the sun’s flame set on fire, that rain
nor river ever made so broad a lake.
The newness of the sound, and brilliant light
kindled in me a wish to know their cause,
never with so great keenness felt;"

• G F HANDEL "Lascia la spina" from oratory "The triumph of Time and Truth" (voice and guitar)

  • Enrico Cresci - the piece for guitar solo

Extract from Dante's "The New Life", cap II:
"When so many days had passed that exactly nine years were completed since the appearance of this most gracious being I have written of above, it happened, on the last of these days, that this marvellous lady appeared to me, dressed in the whitest of white, between two gracious ladies who were of greater age: and passing through a street she turned her eyes to the place where I stood greatly fearful, and, with her ineffable courtesy, that is now rewarded in a greater sphere, she greeted me so virtuously, so much so that I saw then to the very end of grace. The hour at which her so sweet greeting welcomed me was exactly the ninth of that day, and because it was the first time that her words deigned to come to my ears, I found such sweetness that I left the crowd as if intoxicated, and I returned to the solitude of my own room, and fell to thinking of this most gracious one."

• G F Handel - "Ombra mai fu" from opera Xerxes (guitar, voice)

NATALIA PAVLOVA

Moscow and Rome-based soprano Natalia Pavlova (who is a descendant of Russian national poet Alexander Pushkin) has graced the stages of Carnegie Hall, Moscow Chaikovsky State Conservatory, Auditorium Parco della Musica (Rome), and many others throughout the world.

Active in performing music from antiquity to today, she was a soloist for 6 years in the Moscow theater School of Dramatic Art, directed by Anatoly Vasiliev. Natalia has sung world premiere performances and recordings of works by composers Giovanni Sollima, Venus Rey and Iraida Yusupova, composed specially for her voice, as well as pieces by Vladimir Martynov. She serves on Artistic Council of The First Cultural International Festival, Russian-Rome, Palazzo Poli in Rome, and was recently awarded the Silver Lion at the Narnia International Festival, as well as the International "Clean Sound" Award. She recorded 3 CD with contemporary music in Da Vinci Classics ( Japan) and in Art Classics (Moscow)
Www.nataliapavlova.ru

Traditional Repertoire
Opera, Baroque/Early Music, Contemporary Music

ALESSANDRA CICCAGLIONI

Born in Rome, graduated in organ at the S. Cecilia Conservatory of music by A. Pavoni.
She attended masterclass by various organists such as L. Lohmann, B. van Oosten and F. Cera
and played for different festival/churches in Rome (Un organo per Roma, Mascagni young
generation festival, Rassegna organistica S. Maria della Mercede, S. Marcello al Corso, S. Alfonso
de’ Liguori, S. Maria Odigitria and others). She is a principal organist at the church of S. Francesco a Ripa in Trastevere in Rome (Italy)

ALESSANDRO DANIELI - guitar

He has graduated with full marks at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome. He specialized with important international artists including Maurizio Colonna, Rolf Lislevand, Magnus Andersson and was a student of the specialization courses of the prestigious Chigiana Academy of Siena under the guidance of Oscar Ghiglia. He has been performing for several years as a soloist, with orchestras and various chamber ensembles in Italy, Austria, Germany and Finland. As a soloist he is often invited to participate on international festivals and plays for important musical institutions such as the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia, Epta Italy and the Youth Music Foundation of Italy. He dedicates himself in a passionate and innovative way to the repertoire of chamber music with guitar, transcribing for this instrument the most significant pages of the great chamber repertoire. Over the last few years he has participated as a young talent in the world of guitar and plays as a guest on various Rai television programs.