Longtime Reader valine76 writes:
“Lately I’ve left the romantic era and have been browsing music from the baroque period, especially Vivaldi and Handel. While there, I stumbled across a composition by Ricardo Broschi (1698-1756), brother of Carlo Broschi, aka “Farinelli,” the foremost castrato of the era.
“It’s obvious Riccardo wrote the piece to showcase his brother’s voice, and here, the vocal is sung exquisitely by soprano Simone Kermes.
“What made this special for me is that this dreamy piece is accompanied by a series of stunning still lifes by Roman Reisinger, an artist still working. Looking at his images while listening to the music, I can smell the onions, feel the brittle leaves of the drying herbs and seed pods of the money plant, I can smell the algae in a bottle of water rooting a plant – the whole series is a feast of textures that pull me into the works.
“Go full screen, sit back, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.”
I did, and I did.
Now the rest of you can do the same. And Val: thankee for the email and the kind words that preceded the above recommendation. It is absolutely no exaggeration to say that having Readers like you is what makes this all so rewarding.
That was lovely, thank you both. I am going to watch it again on the big-screen TV with the volume right up asap. Simone Kermes did a super “pastiche” CD a few years back – singing modern pop songs (Sting, Fields of Gold, among others) in the baroque style. It was absolutely fantastic, and shows what a talented lady she is.
In the meantime, follow this like to spend two and a half minutes watching Huw Montague Rendall & Elisabeth Boudreault give the best rendition I have ever heard of the “Pa-Pa-Pa-Papagena” duet from Mozart’s Zauberflöte. https://youtu.be/lP9V7_fevgQ
If you are not head over heels for the soprano by the end, I don’t want to know you…