"Amarilli" CD

CD Amarilli with baritone Jaka Mihelac:
Considering Slovenian Lieder as a specific genre fundamentally embedded in the Slovenian national memory and cultural heritage, the selected recordings bring insight into the music of the country, the homeland of both artists. A widely established repertoire of lieder by composers ranging from Benjamin Ipavec to Anton Lajovic and Lucijan Marija Skerjanc form the musical core of the programme as an homage to the poetic-musical processes which marked the period between the end of the 19th and first half of the 20th century. The musical setting of poems by Oton Zupancic, Josip Murn, Cvetko Golar, Vojeslav Molé, Anton Askerc and also France Preseren consolidated the array of late Romantic and impressionistic techniques that became characteristic of Slovenian Lieder centred around typical motifs of Romantic poetry such as moonlight, moon, love and also infatuation with nature and its wonders. This time, however, the famous repertoire is dressed in acoustically different attire and presented for the first time as an arrangement for voice and classical guitar (which replaces the piano); all arrangements were written by Jure Cerkovnik. This new instrumentation offers a more intimate sound and thus an innovative interpretation of traditionally stylised works, giving the mentioned poetic topoi a novel musical character. As a pillar of Slovenian art music, Slovenian Lieder are further intertwined with a selection of famous Italian Baroque arias (from G. Caccini to A. Scarlatti) and songs, which include some rarely heard pieces. Among these, special attention should be given to the rarely performed and recorded aria O morte gradita from the second act of the Roman religious opera Il Sant’Alessio by the Italian composer Stefano Landi from 1632/34 (libretto by Giulio Rospigliosi), where the accompaniment by violins and basso continuo instruments is replaced by guitar sounds.