‘Purveyors of uplifting and exhilarating music’—BBC Radio 3
The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen have won dozens of awards and accolades around the world for our pioneering and compelling recordings—all them built around world-leading research and performers. Our last recording, Pepusch 'Chandos Anthems' was Editor's Choice in Gramophone in January 2024 and also including their Best Classical Recordings of 2024. It was nominated for two awards in the 'Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik' and given a full-length feature on BBC Radio 3's Record Review, amongst many others.
This latest project will see us extend that pattern to the musical milieu of one of the best-known composers of the baroque era: Antonio Vivaldi. The Venetian master came to Prague around early 1730 to oversee the production of his popular opera Il Farnace, which included the dramatic and powerful aria for the title character 'Gelido in ogni vena'. Prior to this, though, Vivaldi had several other important contacts in Prague. He dedicated his Op. 8 concertos to Count Morzin of Prague, for whose bassoonist, Anton Möser, he also composed a concerto [RV 496], to recorded with bassoonist Sally Holman. Vivaldi had previously acted as musical director for Morzin's ensemble when they travelled to Venice and Morzin's musicians became ardent admirers and imitators of Vivaldi. In this latter category is the breathtaking violin concerto in D minor by František Jiránek and Reichenauer's C minor violin concerto, both to be played by Tassilo Erhardt. Amongst the world-premieres on the disc is also Reichenauer's double concerto in F for oboe and bassoon, where Sally is joined by oboe virtuoso Mark Baigent.
Also grabbing the headlines in this project is our first collaboration with the fabulous Czech soprano Hana Blažíková. She will be singing a newly-reconstructed aria from the pasticcio Praga nascente da Libussa, e Primislao (Prague, 1734), 'Gelido in ogni vena' from Il Farnace and the aria for 'Fire' from František Miča's serenade 'The Four Elements'—surely inspired by the popularity of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. We will also record a world-premiere reconstruction of the first opera aria in the Czech language ever performed onstage: 'Veselí a zpíváme' [We are happy and sing] first sung by the Italian contralto Teresa Peruzzi in Prague in the 1727 pasticcio Il confronto dell’ amore coniugale, sung in our recording by our good friend Ciara Hendrick (who won so many plaudits in our recording of Pepusch's Venus and Adonis). Finally, we will include a short sacred motet by Reichenauer, composed for Count Morzin's musicians to perform at a pilgrimage chapel out of Prague, featuring Tim Dickenson (bass voice) and luscious obligatory parts for violin, oboe and bassoon.
While we are accustomed to the name Vivaldi conjuring imagines of Venice, his relationship to Prague was clearly important, not only to Bohemian musicians, but to Vivaldi himself, praising Count Morzin's 'virtuossissima' ensemble.