Bonaventura Rubino 1600-1668 / Messa de Morti à 5 concertata, 1653

Programme

Bonaventura Rubino (1600-1668)

Missa de Morti à 5 concertata, Op. IV, Palermo 1653 – Fa (F)

Salomone Rossi (1570 ca.-1630), 

Sinfonia Grave a 5 from Il Primo Libro delle Sinfonie et Gagliarde (Venice, 1607)

• Introitus: Requiem aeternam (Rubino, Messa de Morti)

• Te decet hymnus (Rubino, Messa de Morti)

• Kyrie: (Rubino, Messa de Morti)

• Epistola: Maccabaeus 12, 43-46 (cantus planus)

• Sinfonia ottava a 2 violini e trombone - Bartolomeo Montalbano (1629)

• Tractus: Absolve Domine (cantus planus)

• Sequentia: Dies irae, 5 Voci soliste, Coro e basso continuo (Rubino, Messa de Morti)

• Offertorium: Domine Jesu Christe (Rubino, Messa de Morti)

• Sanctus (Rubino, Messa de Morti)

• Timor et tremor - Sigismondo d'India - Liber secundus sacrorum concentuum 1610

• Agnus Dei (Rubino, Messa de Morti)

• Salomone Rossi, Sinfonia IX -  Il Primo Libro delle Sinfonie et Gagliarde (1607)

• Communio: Lux æterna (Rubino, Messa de Morti)

• Requiem æternam (Rubino, Messa de Morti)

• Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676), Sinfonia - Missa Pro Defunctis, Libera me (1675) 

• Responsorio: Libera me
 (Rubino, Messa de Morti)

Performers

Soloists and Choir members: 

Soprano I: Sarah D’Angelo, Andrea Caroline Manchee, Paola Ronchetti

Soprano II: Costanza Antunica, Giorgia Bruno, Federico Mauro Marcucci

Alto: Francesca Romana Cassanelli, Antonello Dorigo, Rossella Mirabelli

Tenor:  Massimo Bisson, Luis Fuentes, Valerio Ilardo

Bass: David Gentile, Andrea Jin Chen, Walter Testolin

Musicians: 

Violin I: Lorenzo Marquez

Violin II: Emanuele Marinelli

Violoncello: Adriano Ancarani

Trombone - Alto: Ermes Giussani

Trombone - Tenor: Mauro Morini

Trombone - Bass: David Yacus

Theorbo: Simone Colavecchi

Organ: Nicola Lamon

Director:

Vincenzo Di Betta

Programme Notes

The concert presents the Missa de Morti à 5 concertata (Requiem Mass) by Bonaventura Rubino, published in Il Secondo Libro de Mottetti […] Opera Quarta (Palermo, 1653). The only known copy of the original edition is preserved in the Music Archives of the Mdina Cathedral Museum of Malta. Rubino was one of the protagonists of the musical life of Palermo, where he was Kapellmeister in the Cathedral, for more than twenty-five years. He was born in Lombardy around 1600, at the age of twenty-five he joined the Conventual Franciscans Order. In Palermo, Rubino became one of the most appreciated musicians. From 1643 he was the head of the Cappella Musicale of Palermo's Cathedral and held this prestigious role until 1668, the year of his death. His collections of sacred music were printed in Palermo between 1645 and 1658. This Requiem is the only composition of this genre, in the entire Sicilian sacred repertory of the seventeenth century. Probably the Requiem could have been performed in the Maltese Cathedral. Rubino’s Requiem Mass is formed by the Ordinarium and Proprium parts, besides the Sequence Dies irae. The Responsory Libera me, which is not an usual part of the Mass, reveals that this Requiem was performed on solemn occasions. The composition is presented in concert within its proper liturgical and musical context: the polyphonic sections are alternated with the Gregorian monodies of the ancient Roman rite. The instrumental pieces are introduced, according to Sicilian customs, whereby the organ and instruments were allowed during these rites. 

Biographies

Vincenzo Di Betta, conductor

Vincenzo Di Betta, conductor, was born in Agrigento (Sicily) in 1975. He is an organist, singer and conductor. He creates new cultural and musical projects, for the revival of the ancient music, with the research and rediscovery of inedited compositions, of the Sicilian and Roman schools. He studied organ and singing in Zurich and Palermo. In 1997 he began to collaborate with the Antonio Il Verso Ensemble in Palermo, and the Elyma Ensemble in Geneva. In 2010 he recreated the Musical Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria in Campitelli in Rome; on this occasion the Ordine dei Chierici Regolari della Madre di Dio (OMD) appointed him Kapellmeister, and he established the vocal and instrumental ensemble La Cantoria Campitelli. As organist he plays during solemn liturgies and in concert; as singer he is a stable artist of the Opera Theatre Choir in Rome. He has recorded CDs with compositions of   Giovannini, Benevoli, Rubino, De Rossi.  In 2012 Di Betta founded the Musical Association La Cantoria, and in 2022 created the Youth Centre for Ancient and Contemporary Music in Rome.

The Musical Chapel of Santa Maria in Campitelli 

The Musical Chapel of Santa Maria in Campitelli restored the ancient chapel which was created when the OMD Order was founded in 1574. The church’s archive conserves unpublished manuscript compositions,  owned by the OMD and used by the Musical Chapel. The choir consists of a professional group of singers who sing in concert and during solemn liturgical celebrations. 

Ensemble la Cantoria

The Ensemble La Cantoria is the instrumental and vocal group which realises the musical project of the Association La Cantoria.