Affetti amorosi - Arie musicali. Firenze, 1630 Damien Guillon

• Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi (1743 - 1805): Arie musicali, Book 2, F 7:
• 1 Arie musicali, Book 2, F 7: No. 3, Oscure selve 02:25
• 2 Arie musicali, Book 1, F 7: No. 22, Corilla danzando 00:59
• 3 Arie musicali, Book 1, F 7: No. 21, Eri già tutta mia 03:36
• Toccate e partite d'intavolatura, Book 1, F 2:
• 4 Toccate e partite d'intavolatura, Book 1, F 2: No. 32, Balletto e ciaccona 01:10
• Arie musicali, Book 1, F 7:
• 5 Arie musicali, Book 1, F 7: No. 15, Se l'aura spira 01:15
• 6 Arie musicali, Book 1, F 7: No. 7, Dunque dovrò 03:08
• 7 Arie musicali, Book 1, F 7: No. 11, Troppo sotto due stele 03:46
• 8 Arie musicali, Book 2, F 7: No. 20, Oh dolore 03:52
• Toccata per spinettina sola over liuto, F 8.51:
• 9 Toccata per spinettina sola over liuto, F 8.51 02:18
• Arie musicali, Book 2, F 7:
• 10 Arie musicali, Book 2, F 7: No. 1, Vanne o carta amorosa 03:16
• 11 Arie musicali, Book 1, F 7: No. 3, Ardo, e taccio il mio mal 04:22
• 12 Arie musicali, Book 1, F 7: No. 23, Con dolcezza, e pietate 01:16
• 13 Arie musicali, Book 1, F 7: No. 12, Non mi negate ohimè 02:06
• 14 Arie musicali, Book 1, F 7: No. 20, Dove ne vai pensiero 01:31
• 15 Arie musicali, Book 1, F 7: No. 7, Voi partite mio sole 02:16
• 16 Arie musicali, Book 2, F 7: No. 12, Non vi partite 02:03
• 17 Arie musicali, Book 2, F 7: No. 19, Doloroso mio core 02:47
• Toccate e partite d'intavolatura, Book 2, F 3:
• 18 Toccate e partite d'intavolatura, Book 2, F 3: No. 29, Gagliarda terza 01:40
• Arie musicali, Book 2, F 7:
• 19 Arie musicali, Book 2, F 7: No. 13, Gioite oh selve 03:14
• 20 Arie musicali, Book 1, F 7: No. 16, Così mi disprezzate 03:09
• Toccate e partite d'intavolatura, Book 2, F 3:
• 21 Toccate e partite d'intavolatura, Book 2, F 3: No. 28, Passacagli 02:16
• Arie musicali, Book 2, F 7:
• 22 Arie musicali, Book 2, F 7: No. 4, Ohimè che fur 02:41
• 23 Arie musicali, Book 1, F 7: No. 6, Maddalena alla croce 02:45
• Toccate e partite d'intavolatura, Book 2, F 3:
• 24 Toccate e partite d'intavolatura, Book 2, F 3: No. 12, Ancidetemi pur 06:52
• Arie musicali, Book 2, F 7:
• 25 Arie musicali, Book 2, F 7: No. 6, Ti lascio anima mia 04:14
• Total Runtime 01:08:57

Info for Affetti amorosi - Arie musicali. Firenze, 1630

With Affetti amorosi Damien Guillon directs a dazzling selection of vocal works from Girolamo Frescobaldi, drawn from the Ferrara composer’s two books of Arie musicali. These arias date from 1615-1630, by which time Frescobaldi, now resident in Rome, had become a “cult” composer, and permitted great expressive freedom in the performance of his music.

Purposefully offering a recording full of contrasts and singing of human and divine love, countertenor Guillon is admirably matched by the other vocal talents in Le Banquet Céleste: soprano Céline Scheen, tenor Thomas Hobbs and bass Benoît Arnould. This new Glossa recording includes two of Frescobaldi’s enduring and moving spiritual sonnets, Maddalena alla croce and Ohimè che fur as well as one of the nascent Baroque’s favoured vocal forms, the lettera amorosa, in Vanne, o carta amorosa.

The singers are joined by lute, harp, cello and harpsichord from Guillon’s ensemble. In his wide- ranging and thought-provoking essay Pierre-Élie Mamou points out vivid characteristics of this early Baroque music – including “the play of opposites that greatly moves our souls” – notably the polarities between anxiety and pleasure, and time which passes and time which remains.

"The young singer who developed his virtuosity discretely also has a wide experience of collective works (..) time seems suspended on the lips of Damien Guillon" (Marie-Aude Roux, Le Monde)

"Every word, every note takes all its meaning from a solar song with such rare accuracy and intelligence. The almost perfect musical accompaniment gives more power to Guillon’s song, visibly very inspired by the chosen repertoire. (..) Guillon makes the desperate emotions personal without ever taking the easy option. (…)" (Classique News)

Céline Scheen, soprano
Damien Guillon, countertenor
Thomas Hobbs, tenor
Benoît Arnould, bass
Le Banquet Céleste
Damien Guillon, direction

Damien Guillon
begins his musical knowledge in 1989 at the Maîtrise de Bretagne supervised by Jean-Michel Noël. He receives a full music education from his youngest age and quickly sings as solo soprano in many baroque oratorios as well as at the Rennes Opera in The Magic Flute by Mozart.

From 1998 till 2001, he is a member of the Maîtrise du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles directed by Olivier Schneebeli, where he improves his vocal technique and deepens his research about early music interpretations with Howard Crook, Jérome Corréas, Alain Buet, Noëlle Barker. In 2004, he is admitted at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis to receive the teaching of Andreas Scholl. At the same time, he studies organ with Frédéric Desenclos and Véronique Le Guen and graduated in Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory (continuo and harpsichord).

Currently, his vocal and musical qualities earned him invitations to perform with conductors as famous as Masaaki Suzuki, Vincent Dumestre, Hervé Niquet, Philippe Pierlot, Pierre Hantaï, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Christophe Rousset, Philippe Herreweghe and William Christie. His repertoire ranges from songs of the English Renaissance to Baroque oratorios and operas by Monteverdi (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Bach (Saint John Passion, Saint Matthew Passion, Mass in B minor, Lutherian masses, Christmas Oratorio and cantatas for solo alto), Händel (The Messiah), Purcell (King Arthur and Dido and Aeneas) etc... He performed in several staged productions such as Händel’s Athalie (Paul McCreesh in Ambronay), Teseo (Gilbert Bezzina, Nice Opera) and Giulio Cesare (François-Xavier Roth, Yannis Kokkos, Théâtre de Caen), Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria (Philippe Pierlot, Théâtre de La Monnaie, Brussels) or, recently, Landi’s Il Sant' Alessio (William Christie and Les Arts Florissants).

Damien Guillon is now frequently invited as a conductor: he conducted Caldara’s Maddalena ai piedi di Christo with Les Musicians du Paradis, Bach’s Magnificat with the Café Zimmermann and the Chamber Choir of Rouen at the Arques-la-Bataille Festival and Bach’s cantatas with the Collegium Vocale Gent in Saintes.

Recent engagements include his debut concert at the Edinburgh festival (Eustazio in Händel’s Rinaldo conducted by Maasaki Suzuki), a tour with Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel in Vivaldi’s Gloria and Nisi Dominus (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Opéra de Montpellier etc...) and the role of Arcane in Händel’s Teseo with Les Folies Françoises and Patrick Cohën-Akenine (Théâtre d’Orléans, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées).

This season, he will sing the alto solo part in Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion with Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent (Lincoln Center in New York, Palau de la Musica in Barcelone, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Baden-Baden Festival etc...) and Saint John Passion with Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy (Palais Montcalm in Québec and Carnegie Hall in New York).

Booklet for Affetti amorosi - Arie musicali. Firenze, 1630