Volume 6 of Antonio Florio and Cappella de’ Turchini’s ambitious survey of the finest baroque Neapolitan music returns to the well-nigh accepted father of the so-called Neapolitan School, Francesco Provenzale. Whilst scholars have argued that much of what is deemed ‘Neapolitan’ is really just ‘Italian’ (and that there are few stylistic elements which can be pinned closely to geographical significance), this series has proved, after only six of a proposed 50 releases, that such a view demonstrates a limited knowledge of both the sources and the sheer range of musical idioms and ‘dialects’ which became established in the second half of the seventeenth century. Thanks to the tireless work of musicologist Dinko Fabris and others, Naples is opening up before our very ears.
These three motets for two sopranos (Audite caeli is for soprano and tenor) are hardly masterpieces but they are still good. They come from a publication of 13 motets which Provenzale printed in 1689 to register his new post as maestro di cappella to the Fidelissima Citta di Napoli – following a bizarre wait of 25 years before it could be properly ratified. The bold challenges to the singer’s techniques are often thrilling, redolent of a city with a brilliant pedigree in vocal pedagogy. But the flavour is less one of operatic transplantation than an indigenous sacred virtuosity which Provenzale jealously guarded; both the extensive O Jesu mea spes and Angelicae mentes see both Roberta Invernizzi and Emanuela Galli put through their paces, but they both sail through with well-matched timbres and nonchalant Mediterranean breeziness; only occasionally does their instinct for spontaneous moulding lead to questionable intonation, of the sort which cannot be argued away in the name of increased expression. For the most part, the easy, imitative dialogue of Provenzale’s motets are revitalized by textually alert and finely projected singing. Of the instrumental interludes, Marchitelli’s Sonata II for three violins is a winner. Another fascinating release from this enterprising series.'