Girolamo Crescentini – Sei Cantate per Voce sola e Fortepiano

The form chosen for the arias is almost always tripartite, with the sole exception of the concluding piece, Il ritorno, in which Crescentini experiments with the more modern articulation of two tempi, typical of the rondos which he so often performed on the stages of half of Europe during the years of his successful artistic career. And indeed this piece seems to be the most ambitious of the whole collection: Il ritorno is in fact a work conceived as a grand scena of an opera seria. […] Common to all six cantatas is the great care Crescentini has taken in indicating musical ornaments ‘di grazia’ and expressive intention, even in the recitatives, throughout which it is not uncommon to find directions such as ‘legato e con espressione’ (Il ritorno, b. 83), ‘con trasporto’ (La scusa, b. 160), ‘con sollecitudine’ (same cantata, b. 162). And this almost maniacal attention to expressivity – a characteristic feature of Crescentini’s vocal technique – may justifiably be considered the distinctive quality of these pieces composed for a chamber setting, which place considerable demands on the performer both in purely vocal terms and (above all) from an interpretative point of view.

Girolamo Crescentini
Sei Cantate
Solo Voice and Fortepiano
1820 
Poetry Pietro Metastasio 
Critical Edition Andrea Malnati 
Score editing Alessandro Monga

• N° 1
  Il sogno
• N° 2
  Il primo amore
• N° 3
  La scusa
• N° 4
  Il ritorno
• N° 5
  Amor timido
• N° 6
  La gelosia

• For middle and high voices
• Vocal range: middle/high
• Vocal extension: B2 - A4
• Piano difficulty level ❍/❍❍