レ・トレ・ソプラノ～フェッラーラの三人の貴婦人たち

「フェッラーラの3人の貴婦人」に捧げられたオマージュ・アルバム!

本作は16世紀末のイタリア・フェッラーラ宮廷に仕えた伝説的な女性音楽家たち「フェッラーラの3人の貴婦人」に捧げられたオマージュ・アルバムです。ローラ、リヴィア、アンナの3人は、当時まだ珍しかったプロの女性演奏家として、詩人たちに称賛され、宮廷文化に大きな影響を与えました。彼女たちは1580年にまさにガラスの天井を打ち破り、女性が芸術の世界で名声を得る道を切り拓いたのです。本作ではジャネット・ソレル率いるアポロズ・ファイアが、現代のアマンダ3人組(フォーサイス、パウエル、クライダー)とともに、その革新性と美をよみがえらせます。

アムステルダムでグスタフ・レオンハルト、アメリカでロジャー・ノリントンとレナード・バーンスタインに師事した才女ジャネット・ソレルが創設したクリーヴランドのピリオド・オーケストラ、アポロズ・ファイア。ヨーロッパでのコンサート・ツアーを企画すればチケットが完売し、CDをリリースすればビルボード・チャートを騒がせ、グラミー賞を受賞するなど話題にことかかないアメリカ古楽界注目のオーケストラです。
東京エムプラス

The ensemble Apollos Fire assembles strong performances of music from a variety of eras and places, but the group and director Jeannette Sorrell have rarely done better than with this 2025 release. Le Tre Soprano: The Three Ladies of Ferrara offers music that could easily have been sung by three women, Laura Peverara, Anna Guarini (who ended up getting killed by her husband), and Livia dArco, all of whom played instruments as well as singing. In her booklet note (highly recommended), Sorrell stresses how far out on the cutting edge the performers were as women, and she brings alive how fresh and even radical the music must have sounded at the time, influencing composers themselves as well as picking the ones who represented musics most progressive tendencies at the time. There are a number of ground bass pieces that were pushing musical language toward tonal harmony, even if nobody called it that yet. Consider Amanti, io so vi dire in G Mixolydian mode, which sounds to modern ears for all the world like G major. However, there are striking twists, including a blue note that is later expanded on in an entirely unexpected way. These ground bass songs have plenty of energy, amplified by the large continuo group from Apollos Fire, and nicely balanced by ornate singing lines of a type one associates with Claudio Monteverdi. The three singers are ideally suited to this material. Monteverdi is on the program, but most of the music by the likes of the melodiously named Luzzasco Luzzaschi preceded and inspired him. A fresh release of late Renaissance music with a progressive perspective, this is thoroughly enjoyable stuff, although the large spaces of the church venue where it was recorded tend to dampen the impact a bit. ~ James Manheim