Rebirth / Various Rebirth / Various CD

The lockdown of Spring 2020 allowed Sonya Yoncheva and conductor Leonardo Garc?a Alarc?n to make the album they had been considering for ten years. Rebirth is a message of hope but also the exploration of an idea: that silence and inactivity are the best prelude to creative renewal. Yoncheva's fourth solo album for Sony Classical includes music spanning more than five centuries, from folksong to pop, via some of the most powerful moments in seventeenth-century opera. All the music, in Yoncheva's view, is contemporary. 'Certain styles of musical composition have remained surprisingly close to us through 500 years of history, combining enormous emotional thrust with great simplicity,' she says. From the dawn of opera and music by Monteverdi, the album plots a thematic journey from the Italy of Cavalli, his pupil Strozzi and heir Stradella to the England of Dowland, Gibbons and Ferrabosco - whose motet Hear me, O God employs the same four-note theme as ABBA's Like an Angel Passing Through My Room. After dance-inspired works from Spain and Latin America, and Alarc?n's reconstruction of an aria by Antonio Draghi, Yoncheva offers a traditional folksong from her Bulgarian homeland. Media were full of praise after Sonya Yoncheva performed her album repertoire at the Salzburg Festival after the lockdown in August 2020. 'Music that moves you to tears' wrote the APA and the FAZ raved about her Bulgarian folksong 'Zableinano mi agunce' being "an unforgettable emotional experience." Rebirth was recorded in the concert hall of La Chaux-de-Fonds, with Alarc?n and his ensemble Cappella Mediterranea, during the first European lockdown. The feeling of the acoustic, Alarc?n says, was equivalent to 'playing inside a vast lute.'

1. Queste lagrime e sospiri - ALESSANDRO STRADELLA 1639û1682 2. O rosetta, che rosetta SV 237 (instrumental) from Scherzi musicali - CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI 1567û1643 3. E te pur vero à Luci mie, voi che miraste - Aria of Adelanta from Xerse - FRANCESCO CAVALLI 1602û1676 4. The Silver Swan ORLANDO GIBBONS 1583û1625 5. Voglio di vita uscir SV 337 CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI 1567û1643 6. SÆapre la tomba 7. Ojos, pues me desde±ßis JOS? MAR?N 1618/19û1699 8. Y a tus plantas Nisea - Aria of Minerva from El Prometeo - LEONARDO GARC?A ALARC?N *1976 9. Pasaje del olvido (instrumental) - SIM?N D?AZ 1928û2014 10. Zableyalo mi agance - BULGARIAN FOLK-SONG 11. LÆEgisto: Sinfonia della notte (instrumental) - FRANCESCO CAVALLI 12. Oblivion soave - Aria of Arnalta from LÆincoronazione di Poppea SV 308 - CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI 13. LÆEraclito amoroso from Cantate, ariette e duetti op. 2 - BARBARA STROZZI 1619û1677 14. Tarantela espa±ola (instrumental) SANTIAGO DE MURCIA c.1682ûc.1740 DIEGO FERN?NDEZ DE HUETE c.1635ûc.1713 15. Hear me, O God Adapted from Pavan on Four Notes ALFONSO FERRABOSCO II c.1575û1628 16. Come again, sweet love doth now invite JOHN DOWLAND 1563û1626 17. No hay que decirle el primor TOM?S DE TORREJ?N Y VELAZCO 1644û1728 18. Like an Angel Passing Through My Room ABBA(BENNY ANDERSSON / BJ?RN ULVAEUS)