Cavalieri Imperiali
05 August 2024/11h00/ Belgium / Stavelot
“Il Cavaliere Luigi del Cornetto d'Ancona, who played his instrument miraculously […], I notably heard him once accompanied by a harpsichord from which the lid was closed, and he played the cornet with such delicacy and accuracy that it then astonished every gentleman lover of music, by the fact that the sound of the cornet did not exceed that of the harpsichord. " This fascinating testimony from Vincenzo Giustiniani, a great lover of the Arts at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, takes us into the particular world of one of the greatest virtuosos of cornetto. This questions us today about the very notions of quality and virtuosity, which are very different from today's standards. Luigi Zenobi was knighted during his lifetime by the Emperor and celebrated in all artistic circles he frequented: Vienna, Rome, Venice, Ferrara and Naples.
30 years later, another cornet player, Giovanni Sansoni left Venice where he had been hired by Monteverdi in 1617, to embark on a career serving the Emperor, who would also make him a knight. Sansoni gained fame throughout Europe and many composers wrote their most beautiful pages for him: Castello, Buonamente, Valentini, Bertali etc ... His very long career allows him to train a whole generation of cornet players who will ensure the success of the instrument in the Holy Empire while its role and its importance was already fading in Italy. This program offers a musical journey through Europe, imagined around two mythical personalities of the cornetto between 1580 and 1650. Works by Roland de Lassus, G.P. Palestrina, Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Ascanio Mayone, G.B. Buonamente, Giovanni Valentini, Dario Castello…
30 years later, another cornet player, Giovanni Sansoni left Venice where he had been hired by Monteverdi in 1617, to embark on a career serving the Emperor, who would also make him a knight. Sansoni gained fame throughout Europe and many composers wrote their most beautiful pages for him: Castello, Buonamente, Valentini, Bertali etc ... His very long career allows him to train a whole generation of cornet players who will ensure the success of the instrument in the Holy Empire while its role and its importance was already fading in Italy. This program offers a musical journey through Europe, imagined around two mythical personalities of the cornetto between 1580 and 1650. Works by Roland de Lassus, G.P. Palestrina, Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Ascanio Mayone, G.B. Buonamente, Giovanni Valentini, Dario Castello…
