A Garden of Black Flowers

RELEASE MAY 2ND
 
[CD]
 
Astrophil & Stella
Johanna Bartz, Renaissance traversos & direction
Giovanna Baviera, Renaissance viol & voice
Anna Danilevskaia, Renaissance viol
Claire Piganiol, Triple harp
 
Works by Vicenzo Ruffo, Cipriano de Rore, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Pierre de Sermisy, Adrian Willaert
 
A Garden of Black Flowers - Love and Melancholy in late 16th century diminutions, motets and madrigals by Palestrina, Bovicelli, Bassano et al.

Harp, two Viola da gambas and Renaissance traverso unfold a virtuoso, yet intimate and colourful sound picture of a musical late renaissance garden.

The image of the garden as a place of retreat runs throughout the centuries: In the Song of Songs, it is a symbol of the beauty of the beloved and the union of two lovers; in the New Testament, Jesus retreats to the Garden of Gethsemane in dark foreboding before his imprisonment; in medieval and Renaissance mythology, Mary is often compared to a hortus conclusus, a closed garden. Ultimately it stands for the memory of the Garden of Eden and the lost paradise. The idealized image of a secluded garden stands for the last refuge of genuine expression of feeling - real longing, the bliss of true love or heartfelt pain over its loss could not simply be expressed, or even lived out in the strict social order of the time, but were hidden behind the veil of melancholy.