FRANCESCA TORELLI – HOME PAGE
Biography	Concerts	Discography	Publications	Rewiews	Contact

BIOGRAPHY

Francesca Torelli was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy. After earning a degree in lute with the highest marks at the Conservatory of Verona under the guidance of Orlando Cristoforetti, she completed her studies with Nigel North at the Guildhall School of Music in London. At the same time, she studied renaissance and baroque singing, initially participating in the courses held by the Deller Consort and later with Auriol Kimber.

From the beginning, her concert activities have featured the repertoires for voice and lute (singing while accompanying herself on the instrument), as well as the solo repertoire for lute and theorbo and basso continuo.

As a soloist, she has participated in numerous festivals in Italy and abroad, including the Autunno musicale of Como, the Festival di Musica Barocca in Rome, the Festival di Tours, the Settimana Internazionale Frescobaldi in Ferrara, the Petertide Music Festival of London, and many others.

She has collaborated with the orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Vivaldi ensemble of the Solisti Veneti, and with various choirs and chamber orchestras.

She has performed in duo with the flutist Liz Horrigan, the singers Marco Beasley and Sverrier Gudjonsson and the mandolin player Cleofe Miotti. More recently, she has begun performing in duo with the soprano Silvia Testoni and with the flutist Andrea Aldini.

She has recorded for the labels Dynamic, Stradivarius, Mondo Musica and Nuova Era, with the ensembles Sans souci, Cappella Palatina, Accademia Farnese and the chamber orchestra Offerta Musicale of Venice. She has also recorded for the Italian radio (RAI Radiotre) and for other radio and television networks throughout Europe.

She has provided the music for various theatrical productions including La caduta di casa Usher by Edgar Allan Poe and L’Orlando innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo, and has appeared as a lutenist on television programs for RAI 2, Channel 4, and others.

For over a decade she has performed in concert and on disc (for the label Tactus) as theorbist with the ensemble Cappella Artemisia, participating in numerous European festivals (the Festival Monteverdi of Cremona, in Bern, for the Concerti del Quirinale in Rome, in Bonn, at the Segni Barocchi in Foligno, for the festival Frauen in der Musik in Herne, in Lugano, and elsewhere).

She has also made two solo recordings (on Tactus) of music by two important Italian 17th-century composers for the lute: Alessandro Piccinini and Pietro Paolo Melli.

She has edited publications of music for theorbo (for SPES), and written articles on certain Italian composers for lute for various musical periodicals.

She has taught lute at the conservatories of Bari and Vicenza and has held seminars and master classes at numerous musical institutions.

She is the founder and director of the ensemble Scintille di musica with whom she has recorded a CD for the “Futuro antico” series (on EMI Classic): Mantova, la musica alla corte dei Gonzaga, featuring the voice of Angelo Branduardi.

She is currently professor of lute at the “Verdi” Conservatory in Milan.

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CONCERTS

SOLO PROGRAMMES

Fantasias, songs and dances of the European Renaissance.

Music by Spinacino, Milan, Newsidler, Attaingnant, Le Roy, Narvaez, Bakfark, Dowland, Cutting, Vallet.

Bach and Weiss

Sonatas and suites.

Early Italian Baroque

Music by Piccinini, Kapsberger, Melli, Garsi, Falconieri.

English music of the Elizabethan Age

Music by Dowland, Cutting, Ferrabosco, Pilkington, Robinson.

The golden rose

French lute music by Gaultier e Mouton

Melancholy and joy

16th century Italian music for voice and lute

Music by Cara, Tromboncino, Capirola, Willaert, Francesco da Milano, Borrono, Gorzanis, Molinaro.

Arpeggiata

Theorbo music by Kapsberger, Piccinini, De Visée.

REPERTOIRE

Renaissance lute:

Fantasies, ricercari, dances and madrigals by 16^th century European composers

Voice and lute:

Renaissance madrigals, villanelle, airs, songs and villancicos by Italian, French, English and Spanish composers.

D-minor lute:

baroque suites and sonatas by French and German composers.

Theorbo:

17^th century preludes, toccatas, dances and ostinato variations by Italian and French composers.

Archlute:

Baroque toccatas, capricci and dances by Italian composers.

Baroque guitar:

sonatas by 17^th century Italian authors

G-lute and d-minor lute:

contemporary music, lute transcriptions from Bach and Vivaldi.

Duo recitals with:

Silvia Testoni, soprano

Sverrir Gudjonsson, countertenor

Cleofe Miotti, mandolin

Andrea Aldini, traverso

Nicoletta Mainardi, cello

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DISCOGRAPHY

Solo recordings:

- Domenico Maria e Pietro Paolo Melli, Musiche a voce sola e intavolature di liuto e tiorba,

Francesca Torelli soprano, lute and theorbo, Tactus, TC600002, 1996.

- Alessandro Piccinini, Intavolature di Liuto e Chitarrone, Libro II, 1639 e Modena ms,

Francesca Torelli, lute and theorbo, Tactus, TC561602, 2000.

Conductor/lutenist:

- Futuro Antico III, Mantova: la musica alla corte dei Gonzaga, Angelo Branduardi voice, ensemble Scintille di musica, Francesca Torelli direction, lute, theorbo, EMI Classic, 5574202, 2002.

With ensembles:

- A. Vivaldi, Flute concertos op.10, Marzio Conti, L’Offerta musicale di Venezia, Nuova Era

7192, 1994.

- Canti nel chiostro, Musica dei monasteri bolognesi del’600, Cappella Artemisia, Tactus,

TC600001, 1994.

- G.Ph. Telemann, Der Harmonischer Gottes-Dienst vol I, Ensemble Barocco Padovano Sans

Souci, Dynamic, CDS118, 1994.

- L.da Viadana, Canzonette a tre voci, Cappella Palatina, Stradivarius, STR33387, 1994.

- F. Couperin, Les Apotheoses – Les Nations, Accademia Farnese, Mondo Musica, MM96016,

1996, (3 CD).

- C.M. Cozzolani, Vespri Natalizi, Cappella Artemisia, Tactus, TC600301, 1997.

- Rosa Mistica, musica di compositrici lombarde del Seicento, Cappella Artemisia, Tactus,

600003, 1999 (recommended by Fondazione Cini discographic prize, 1999).

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PUBLICATIONS

Preface to:

G. Kapsberger, A. Piccinini, G. Viviani, Intavolature di chitarrone, mss Modena, Firenze, SPES, 1999.

Preface to:

B. Castaldi, Capricci a due strumenti cioè tiorba e tiorbino, Modena 1622, Firenze, SPES, 2002.

ARTICLES:

- Una prima documentazione sui Melli, musicisti di Reggio Emilia, Il flauto dolce: Rivista per

lo studio e la pratica della musica antica, X-XI, 1984, p. 35-39.

- Pietro Paolo Melli, Musician of Reggio Emilia, Journal of the Lute Society of America, XVIII-XVIII, 1984-5,p. 42-49.

- Musicisti reggiani del Seicento, Alla corte dell’imperatore Mattia, Reggio Storia, VIII-1, 1985.

- Musicisti reggiani del Seicento, Benedetto Ferrari: pioniere degli impresari teatrali e librettista, Reggio Storia, X-2, 1987.

- Benedetto della tiorba, Bollettino della Società Italiana del Liuto, n° 2, oct. 1991.

CD BOOKLETS NOTES:

- Domenico Maria e Pietro Paolo Melli, Musiche a voce sola e intavolature di liuto e tiorba,

Tactus, TC600002, 1996.

- Alessandro Piccinini, Intavolature di liuto e chitarrone, Tactus TC561602, 2000.

- Futuro Antico III, Mantova: la musica alla corte dei Gonzaga, EMI classic, 2002.

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REWIEWS

La bolognese Tactus affida felicemente a Francesca Torelli la documentazione su un concittadino vissuto tra ‘500 e ‘600….Il delizioso programma confezionato dalla giovane strumentista documenta il gusto versatile di Piccinini e una fase stilistica cruciale della storia delle forme strumentali barocche. Nelle dimensioni quasi aforistiche di questi pezzi –che l’interprete anima con limpidezza strumentale, levigatezza nell’articolazione e una garbata freschezza nel dosare le tinte e i timbri – c’è un mondo che sta nascendo.

Angelo Foletto in Suonare news

…a quasi-improvisatory style that provides an exellent showcase for Torelli’s playing. She combines a very sure and strong technique with intelligence in conveying the structure of each piece, and great sensitivity in shaping each phrase, allowing the instrument space to breathe….the sound quality is extremely clear throughout, the intricacies of the contapuntal lines never blurred. The rich, dark tones of the chitarrone are particularly effective…Torelli’s performances display the same combination of technical mastery and improvised exploration and embellishment.

The result is an hour of intense and charming performances that draw the listener into the intimate sound-world of the early Baroque lute and chitarrone.

Emma Wakelin in Record Rewiew

…Si apprezza il calore infuso in certi momenti, la naturalezza di molti accenti di passione o di dolore che rende l’interpretazione assai viva e sentita …risultando assai precisa, pulita e dolcemente espressiva. Novello menestrello, la figura totalizzante della Torelli dona una piacevole e invitante atmosfera artigianale al lavoro, una semplicità che sembra celare una sincerità tutta personale.

Marco Iannelli in Musica

…l’ensemble Scintille di Musica, magistralmente diretto da Francesca Torelli….davvero bravissima, specie nei duetti liuto/voce con [Branduardi].

Ezio Guaitamacchi in Jam-Viaggio nella musica

Branduardi e Francesca Torelli hanno selezionato alcune pagine frottol-madrigalistiche splendide…rinnovate nella veste timbrica, con gusto filologico ma estrose intensità esecutive e strumentali moderne. Tra i canti, almeno due elettrizzanti incontri tragici…, serviti da un supporto strumentale prezioso e insinuante che ben illustra la classe interpretativa alta del gruppo della Torelli.

Angelo Foletto in Suonare news

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CONTACT

Francesca Torelli

Via Caravaggio 4

42100 Reggio Emilia

tel. ++ ++ 522-556519

e-mail: francesca@xform.it

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