The definitive collection of Bonporti’s chamber music, including many first-ever recordings.
Labirinti Armonici is an Italian-based early-music ensemble with a string of Brilliant Classics albums to its credit, focusing on the neglected music of the north-Italian composer Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672–1749). A priest like his contemporary Vivaldi, he focused his creative energies on music for the church and for chamber ensemble, and it is this impressive catalogue of work that Labirinti Armonici has documented.
Bonporti has by and large been heard only in excerpted, fragmentary form on collections of Italian-Baroquecomposers, but Labirinti Armonici reveal the true breadth of his creative personality. There are four surviving collections of stylish sonatas for two violins and continuo, published as Opp. 1, 2, 4 and 6. Labirinti Armonici take an imaginative approach to the continuo part, enriching the skeletal figured-bass line with cello, harpsichord and organ in various combinations according to the mood and character of each specific sonata.
Having most likely studied the violin with Arcangelo Corelli, Bonporti shares with this master of Baroque-violin style a graceful approach to melody which prizes cantabile above virtuoso flourishes, though a thorough understanding of Baroque ornamentation is needed to make the melodies rise and fall with the harmonic intensity intended by the composer. Bonporti tends to make bolder harmonic excursions than Corelli, and in itself this is likely to make a more striking appeal to modern ears.
When separately issued, these collections won glowing praise from international reviewers, and this reissue makes an invaluable contribution to the field of Baroque chamber music available at a more accessible price than ever. ‘The overall effect is of a highly professional group at home with the repertoire. So little of Bonporti’s works have been recorded to the highest standards; let us hope this is a start of a revival!’ (Early Music Review)
- Francesco Bonporti lived for the largest part of his life in Trento, his native town. He studied in Rome, and was influenced by Arcangelo Corelli, whose style of imitative counterpoint he invests with dramatic elements. His fame spread over Europe and the great Johann Sebastian Bach transcribed for harpsichord some of his violin sonatas.
- Bonporti’s compositional model was clearly that of Corelli, with its technically sophisticated writing for the violin, full of virtuoso touches as well as imaginative harmony and lively part-writing.
- This 4 CD set presents Bonporti’s complete Sonatas for two violins and basso continuo, his opus number 1, 2, 4 and 6, some of which were issued separately in previous issues. They mark the transition from the Baroque style towards the concertante style in which the violins assume a soloistic and individual role, focused on melodic character and brilliant virtuosity.
- The Italian group Labirinti Armonici specializes in the performance of undiscovered Baroque music, it consists of two violins, cello and harpsichord/organ. ‘These performances are excellent, ideally balancing energy and gracefulness… I can think of nothing bad to say about these sonatas and these performances. This disc has raised my curiosity about Bonporti, and I think that is recommendation enough.’ (Fanfare).
