Gianluigi Trovesi
Stefano Montanari
Stravaganze consonanti

Gianluigi Trovesi piccolo clarinet, alto clarinet, alto Saxophone
Stefano Montanari concertmaster
Stefano Rossi second violin
Claudio Andriani viola
Francesco Galligioni violoncello
Luca Bandini double bass
Emiliano Rodolfi oboe
Pryska Comploi second oboe
Alberto Guerra bassoon, dulciana
Riccardo Balbinutti percussion
Ivano Zanenghi archlute
Valeria Montanari harpsichord
Fulvio Maras percussion, electronics
Recorded January 2014 at Sala musicale giardino, Cremona
Engineer: Roberto Chinellato
Mixed September 2021 at Artesuono Studio, Udine
by Gianluigi Trovesi, Stefano Montanari, Guido Gorna, and Stefano Amerio (engineer)
Cover photo: Luciano Rossetti
An ECM Production
Release date: February 24, 2023

Italian reed virtuoso Gianluigi Trovesi and baroque violinist Stefano Montanari (doubling here as concertmaster) lead an ensemble of period instruments for a fresh take on the music of the 15th through 17th centuries. Meshing melodies from towering figures of the Renaissance and Baroque with equally visionary interpretations, the program manages to carve new initials into old pillars without marring their beauty. Some new compositions by Trovesi, plus a couple of improvisations with Fulvio Maras (percussion, electronics), complete the mix.

The album’s title, which translates as “consonant extravagances,” offers an accurate description of what is happening sonically, creatively, and even spiritually. “The Witches’ Dance” (from Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas) leads off on a courtly foot. Purcell makes a handful of appearances throughout, most gorgeously as a motivic inspiration for Trovesi’s “For a While.” Like all of his pieces, it benefits from the robustness of Corrado Guarino’s arrangements, which take advantage of the period instrument ensemble under Montanari’s charge. The latter brings the crispness of strings to “Consonanze stravaganti” by Giovanni Maria Trabaci (an influence on Girolamo Frescobaldi), Guillaume Dufay’s Missa L’homme armé, and a sonata by Giovanni Battista Buonamente. Whether threading his alto through Andrea Falconieri’s “La suave melodia” or revealing his compositional wonders in “L’ometto disarmato” and the alto clarinet jaunt of “Bergheim,” Trovesi is a force of nature shapeshifting between song and cry on the turn of a dime. If the past is alive in his sound, then so is the future.

(This review originally appeared in the January 2024 edition of The New York City Jazz Record, a full PDF of which is available here.)