CD Review | Il ponte di Leonardo (Glossa, 2023)

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Il ponte di Leonardo
Constantinople; Marco Beasley, tenor; Kiya Tabassian, sitar, voice, artistic director
Glossa, 2023

This album presents a musical encounter between Kiya Tabassian (artistic direction, sitar and voice), and the virtuoso soloists of his Constantinople ensemble, joined by tenor Marco Beasley, a leading specialist in Renaissance music. Released in May 2023 by Glossa, it is a concert recording that has seen much success thus far.

The various parts of this concert are inspired by manuscript musical works from the 16th and 17th centuries held in the libraries of Florence and Istanbul. On the program are selections from the repertoires of the great cultural centres of the time (Persia, the Ottoman Empire and Renaissance Italy), which set Leonardo da Vinci’s imagined bridge between the West and the East across the Bosphorus, to music. These two sites could have been wonders of the world at the time.

The merit of this production is twofold. Undeniably, its intercultural nature is highly topical. But above all, we must salute the impressive historical and musicological research involved in this project. The interpretation and meticulous deciphering of codified historical and musical documents, which are often simple notations of melodies, necessary to execute these performances were surely no small feat. This, of course, requires patience and a great deal of imagination: to analyze and adapt basic material compositions and arrangements to suit the tastes of a 21st-century audience. The success of this album is largely thanks to the talents of its players: Tanya LaPerrière (baroque violin, viola d’amore), Didem Başar (kanoun), Stefano Rocco (archlute, baroque guitar), Fabio Accurso (lute), Marco Ferrari (flute) and Patrick Graham (percussion).

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