Italian Renaissance Harp Music

Kit Samara and Konstantin Shenikov won the 2022 NativeDSD Album of the Year Award for Chamber Music for the album Reggio: 24 Sonatas for Bass Lute, Volume 1. The new album Italian Renaissance Harp Music is her second album from HR Recordings at NativeDSD. It is exclusively available in Stereo DSD and DXD from NativeDSD. With Libero primo di ricercate, this album uses the cutting edge innovations of today to open a door into those of the past, as they have never been heard before. This seminal collection of ricercars and fantasias by Rocco Rodio was one of the earliest of the Neapolitan school, which gave rise to the wild toccatas of Giovanni Maria Trabaci and the famous harpist Ascanio Mayone. Rodio’s world was culturally vibrant and scintillating with new ideas, from his colleagues at the Spanish court of Naples such as Diego Ortiz, the Burgundian influence of Bartolomeo Le Roy, together with the new research and inventions from Rome and Ferrara. Each piece in this collection is distinguished with a unique harmonic language. This is emblematic of Rodio, who while being an accomplished and learned theorist, believed that “...our obligation is to a more pleasing and sweet effect than to simply follow rules…” With the gift of unparalleled audio fidelity granted by cutting edge technology and a masterpiece of historical harp building by Rainer Thurau, it would be criminal to not embrace the true chromatic edge of this instrument with Fabritio Fillimarino’s Canzon Cromatica. In addition, the two surviving works of one of Rodio’s colleagues was Rinaldo dall’Arpa, a renowned harpist and singer, are recorded here on the harp for the first time. While they too were published as keyboard repertoire, it is hard to deny the influence of dall’Arpa’s chosen and namesake instrument in the joy of his Canzon, or in invoking a spirit of the air in Partite sopra Zefiro. This album brings to life another time and another world with new clarity, intimacy and vibrance. Though four and a half centuries have passed, Rodio’s groundbreaking work remains as touching, enigmatic and inspiring as when it was first conceived, ready for new ears looking to sweetly, pleasingly, break the rules.

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Featured in blog post Notes on Recent Finds, No. 9 – Endless Bounty from NativeDSD by music reviewer Rushton Paul.

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Kit Samara, Harp