Musica
Musica's official index records a 5/5 review in issue 300, page 89. The full review has not been consulted.
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Da Vinci Classics
Monica Finco, Roberto Scarpa Meylougan
Physical and Digital Release: 13 July 2018
Monica Finco and Roberto Scarpa Meylougan present Anna Bon di Venezia's six flute sonatas, Op. 1, exploring the dialogue between flute and organ in this eighteenth-century collection.
13.67€
Six Flute Sonatas, Op. 1 · 24 tracks
Track durations verified on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music; the final minuet and its six variations occupy separate tracks.
Flautist Monica Finco was born in Venice, Italy. She began studying the flute at the age of ten at the “Benedetto Marcello” Conservatory in Venice with Pasquale Rispoli, continuing with Guido Novello. After graduating, she completed her studies with R. Greiss in Germany and A. Marion in France. In 1981 she met the distinguished Swiss flautist and teacher Conrad Klemm, who remained her guide in technique and style for many years.
Gifted with a precocious talent for interpretation, she began her concert career at seventeen. She has since performed as a soloist and in a variety of chamber ensembles, with a repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the modern period. Her concert appearances include the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, the Alessandro Scarlatti Society in Naples, Teatro La Fenice in Venice and Teatro Verdi in Trieste. She has appeared at Settembre Musica in Turin, the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, the Auditorium Giuseppe Verdi in Milan and the Venice Biennale, among many other venues and festivals. She has also taken part in special broadcasts for RAI in Venice, Trieste, Milan, Rome and Turin.
In France she has performed in Bordeaux, Brittany and Normandy and appeared at the Lille Festival. In Austria she has performed at the Salzburg Festival, and in Germany at the Guldener Autumn Festival of Early Music in Thuringia. She has played with the Teatro La Fenice Orchestra in Venice, Filarmonia Regionale Veneta and the Sanremo Symphony Orchestra. Interviews with her have appeared on radio and television, in music magazines and in national newspapers.
In 2015, 2016 and 2017 she was artistic director of the Festival dei Colli in San Gemini, Italy. She has worked as an artist for Briccialdi Flauti Italia and as an Italian artist and representative for LefreQue sound bridges. She collaborates with Sinfonica Edition on educational projects. Her educational work has also included teaching at the Venice Conservatory.
Pianist, composer and harpsichordist Roberto Scarpa Meylougan graduated with top marks in organ, composition and early liturgical chant from the “Benedetto Marcello” Conservatory in Venice. He studied with Sergio de Pieri and W. van de Pol, and continued his studies in France with Jean Guillou, Michel Chapuis, Jean-Patrice Brosse and Gaston Litaize. His virtuoso pedalboard technique was particularly appreciated by Olivier Messiaen and Karl Richter.
He has maintained an active concert career throughout Europe since 1978, collaborating with major international orchestras and artists including Claudio Abbado, Daniela Dessì, Vjekoslav Šutej and Sir Roger Norrington. Alongside the classical repertoire, he arranges and composes pop and folk music, working with Francesco Renga, Andrea Braido, Marco Ponchiroli and Antonio Maiello, among others.
Following specialised training, he began working as a sound engineer, microphone technician, recording director and audio editor. He has worked as a sound and recording engineer on more than 150 albums distributed worldwide by labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Universal, Philips and Decca. In 2006 he recorded Children, a solo album forming part of his project to reassess and rediscover the organ as a source of shared enjoyment and a means of presenting forgotten music, unusual repertoire and new works. In 2009 he was invited to perform at Methuen Memorial Music Hall in Boston, United States. That year he also appeared on the Sanremo stage with Daniela Dessì and Francesco Renga.
He undertook organ-building training with Piccinelli, Formentelli and Fratelli Ruffatti, collaborating with them on the restoration and construction of organs in the Veneto region.
From 2013 he worked on a UNESCO project funded by several Hungarian authorities to sample some of Italy’s most distinguished organs, with the aim of creating a multimedia sound library. He subsequently began touring with a virtual organ to promote the project. On 31 October 2014 he made his concert debut in Schio, Vicenza, on the Double Borgato pedal piano.
His extensive teaching activities include organ, organ composition, audio and video editing, recording techniques and technologies, and electroacoustics.
Anna Bon di Venezia (b?Russia, ?1739/40). Italian composer and singer. She was the daughter of the (?Venetian) scenographer and librettist Girolamo Bon (Boni, Bonno, Bono, Bonn, Le Bon, Buon, Bunon) and the Bolognese singer Rosa Ruvinetti Bon. In 1743, at the age of four, she entered the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice as a pupil. She probably rejoined her parents at some time during their engagements at St Petersburg, Dresden, Potsdam and Regensburg between 1743 and late 1754. By 1755 she and her family were in Bayreuth in the service of Margrave Friedrich of Brandenburg Culmbach and his wife Wilhelmine, sister of Frederick the Great. After Wilhelmine’s death in 1758 music at Bayreuth declined. In 1759–60 the Bon family all sang in opera performances directed by Girolamo in Pressburg. On 1 July 1762 the three Bons were contracted to serve the Esterházy court of Prince Nicolaus at Eisenstadt, where Anna remained until at least 25 April 1765 (Haydn wrote several roles for her mother). By 1767 she was resident in Hildburghausen, married to the singer Mongeri.
Throughout the long and complex history of music, women were often confined within social structures that offered little opportunity for professional recognition. They could aspire to become accomplished performers, cultivate their talents and compose for circles of devoted admirers in the domestic sphere. Opportunities to develop a broader professional career, and to expand their work in step with the changing musical language of their time, were far less readily available. Against this background, the work of Anna Bon, a fascinating and still elusive figure in the musical life of eighteenth-century…
Throughout the long and complex history of music, women were often confined within social structures that offered little opportunity for professional recognition. They could aspire to become accomplished performers, cultivate their talents and compose for circles of devoted admirers in the domestic sphere. Opportunities to develop a broader professional career, and to expand their work in step with the changing musical language of their time, were far less readily available.
Against this background, the work of Anna Bon, a fascinating and still elusive figure in the musical life of eighteenth-century Europe, is remarkable.
The daughter of the Venetian scenographer, painter and architect Girolamo Bon and the Bolognese singer Rosa Ruvinetti, Anna left relatively few surviving biographical records. The title pages of the three collections she published between 1756 and 1759 provide important evidence of her career.
The VI Sonate da camera per il flauto traversiere e violoncello o cembalo, opera I were published in Nuremberg in 1756 by the widow of Balthasar Schmid. The title page names the composer as “Anna Bon di Venezia”, a designation associated with Venice rather than conclusive evidence of her birthplace. It describes her as sixteen years old and as Virtuosa di musica da camera in the service of Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach-Bayreuth, to whom the sonatas are dedicated.
Anna and her parents were active at the Bayreuth court of the margrave and his wife Wilhelmine, a sister of Frederick the Great. The margrave should therefore be distinguished from the Prussian king. Her family’s theatrical and musical work brought her into contact with a highly cultivated professional environment. Girolamo Bon was also a musician: his Sei facili sonate di violino con il basso were published by the same Nuremberg firm.
The six sonatas each have three principal movements. Their sequence generally proceeds from a slower opening movement towards a more animated conclusion, although the fourth sonata begins with an Allegro moderato. A minuet can serve as the final movement, and the sixth sonata closes with a minuet and variations. In this recording, the theme and its six variations are presented as separate tracks.
The range of keys chosen by Anna Bon is striking at a time when the construction of the Baroque flute made certain tonalities considerably less comfortable than others. The cycle moves through C major, F major, B-flat major, D major, G minor and G major. Its demands on the performer are substantial, and its style combines the grace of courtly music with recognizably Italian melodic expression.
The publication of the flute sonatas in 1756 coincided with the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, a conflict that profoundly affected the European political landscape. Anna continued to compose during the following years. Her Six Sonatas for Harpsichord, Op. 2 appeared in 1757, dedicated to Ernestina Augusta Sophia of Saxe-Weimar. The Six Divertimenti for Two Flutes and Basso Continuo, Op. 3, published in 1759, were dedicated to the Elector Carl Theodor.
The Bon family later worked at the Esterházy court in Eisenstadt. Girolamo was involved in the court theatre, while Rosa and Anna were engaged as singers. Joseph Haydn, who had recently entered the court’s service, was a central figure in its musical life. Anna is still documented there in 1765.
A later account places her in Hildburghausen, Thuringia, in 1767, married to a court singer named Mongeri. Ernestina Augusta Sophia, the dedicatee of her harpsichord sonatas, had become Duchess of Hildburghausen. The subsequent course of Anna’s life remains uncertain: the disappearance of surviving records does not establish an early death. Her achievement as a composer, harpsichordist and singer nevertheless offers an important glimpse of a musical voice that deserves to be heard more widely.
Album notes by Gian-Luca Petrucci. Original English translation by Anne-Jones Nicoletti; revised for the online edition.
Selected awards, reviews and interviews. Radio broadcasts and podcasts are listed separately below.
Musica
Musica's official index records a 5/5 review in issue 300, page 89. The full review has not been consulted.
Read the review ↗ - MusicaScherzo
“favorecer el virtuosismo de Finco”
A positive review of Monica Finco’s virtuosity and Roberto Scarpa Meylougan’s supportive organ playing. February 2019, issue 348, p. 47. No numerical rating is assigned.
Read the review ↗ - ScherzoBroadcasts, conversations and listening features dedicated to this recording.
Rai Radio 3 · Primo Movimento
Selected for the programme’s disc review segment on this date.
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