BaRoMus - Baroque Music Festival: Quintana - Ensemble del Mediteraneo
Ilaria Fantin, archlute, percussion and vocal; Katerina Ghannudi, Baroque harp
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This year’s BaRoMus Festival brought its audiences an enthralling concert by Ilaria Fantin (lute and percussions) and Kateřina Ghannudi (baroque harp and vocal) held at St. Francis’s Church in Rovinj. The two musicians graduated with honour
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The Duo Quintana performs at St. Francis's
This year’s BaRoMus Festival brought its audiences an enthralling concert by Ilaria Fantin (lute and percussions) and Kateřina Ghannudi (baroque harp and vocal) held at St. Francis’s Church in Rovinj. The two musicians graduated with honours from the Verona Conservatory of Music and they have been performing early music ever since.
Their collaboration started in 2010, after each of them had been performing with various ensembles and at numerous festivals dedicated to old music. The audiences enjoyed an unusual musical treat, as the two artists performed not only works by old composers but also explored old musical traditions of the Mediterranean. Owing to this successful collaboration that embodies knowledge of early music, traditional melodies of Sephardic Jews, South Italian Tarantella and Arabic melodies, the audience was presented with a zealous and original performance.
The original and very suggestive repertoire offered a journey to unknown places, times and cultures of the Mediterranean and their languages that simply captivated the audience. Since this music is often unwritten, Quintana played with the repertoire by adding her own arrangements inspired by what she had learned during her studies and personal taste.
For the Rovinj performance titled “Mediterranean Echoes” the musicians selected an interesting programme following Sephardic songs with works by baroque authors, using both basso continuo and improvisation. The audience enjoyed early Baroque works (Ground - G.Finger, Folle è ben - T.Merula, Toccata Prima à Quattro - G.M.Trabaci, Non voglio amare- C. Milanuzzi, The dark is my delight – unknown author, 17th century, Canario – improvised dance, 17th century), Sephardic songs (La Serena, Esta Montaña, Hija mia, Cuando El Rey Nimrod, Tres de la noche ), Arabic songs (Yalla Tnam), old melodies from Southern Italy (La procidana-, Danza, Vento del Sud) and old French songs (Avrix mi galanica , Aire de Mujer, Petite Berceuse). Also, with the original and bold choice of musical numbers, the artists wanted to point out a thread that connects different music traditions of the Mediterranean and 17th century secular music.
