{"id":6697,"date":"2026-10-27T14:06:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T14:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accademiaclub.com\/album\/a-piacere-2\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T14:06:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T14:06:33","slug":"a-piacere","status":"publish","type":"album","link":"https:\/\/accademiaclub.com\/en\/album\/a-piacere\/","title":{"rendered":"A Piacere"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A Piacere<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For centuries, the viola da gamba, in its countless variants, was a dominant presence on the European musical scene. But with the decline of the aristocratic world in the late 18th century, it too fell into decline. This not only condemned it to a long period of obscurity but also crystallised a particular aesthetic in the collective imagination: that of its last golden age, in the France of Louis XV. The viola da gamba came to be associated with intimacy, decadence and melancholy, an image that persists to this day as part of its very essence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet \u2013 without overlooking, of course, the appeal of that aesthetic, that repertoire and its model of the instrument \u2013 the countless types, performing styles and repertoires that the viol embraced during its nearly three centuries of dominance tend to be pushed into the background. Between its beginnings, associated with Morisco music in Spain, and the virtuoso Berlin repertoire of the 18th century, by way of the Italian diminutions and the English popular repertoire of the 17th century, the viol lent itself to every imaginable shape, size, scoring and tuning: from the small quinton<\/em> to the great violones; from the singing jeu de m\u00e9lodie<\/em> to the rich chords of the jeu d’harmonie<\/em>; from the lyra viol<\/em> and its endless settings<\/em> to the resonant seven-string viol of Sainte-Colombe; from the solo repertoire to the role of continuo player, the English consort<\/em>, mixed ensembles with German violins, duos for equal voices, concertos with orchestra\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps this is what drew me most to what would become my instrument: that no two were ever alike, that it was never standardised, that it never let itself be tamed, as happened with the others studied in conservatoires today. There was no sonority, social class or musical style to which the viol was a stranger, and rather than one instrument we should speak of a whole world of instruments. Historical iconography reveals as much: the dozens of paintings and engravings that portray it never repeat a model. Among them we find hardly any constant features beyond being a viola<\/em> (a bowed instrument) and da gamba<\/em> (played between the legs); everything else changed from city to city, from palace to street, from musician to musician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The generations of viola da gamba players of the second half of the 20th century, with the father<\/em> of the modern viola da gamba, Jordi Savall, as their vanguard and beacon, recovered many of those worlds and sonorities and prepared the instrument to take on its role as a full member of the contemporary instrumentarium. It is sometimes wrongly perceived \u2013 sadly, so often by viola da gamba players themselves \u2013 as technically limited compared with other instruments. On the contrary, it is far more flexible and potentially as complete and complex as any of them: it has no need to imitate them, but it can, and must, compete with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It falls to our generation of viola da gamba players to break down barriers \u2013 surely more mental than real: only persevering work can prove it \u2013 and to hand on to the next generation the technical tools and artistic courage that will banish, once and for all, any trace of an inferiority complex, often disguised as mysticism and esotericism, without thereby renouncing the uniqueness of an instrument full of resources of its own. The viol sings, and the viol accompanies its own song; the viol weeps, laments and suffers, but the viol also screams, tears and hurts; it is sun and moon, day and night\u2026 But to see, feel and draw this whole great palette of colours from the instrument, we must at last step out of Sainte-Colombe\u2019s hut \u2013 I do not mean forget it \u2013 and look towards a new horizon where our destination is art tout court<\/em>, music without labels, and where the musician\u2019s first need emerges from within us: love for that marvellous muse that is the viol, and fusion with it to convey beauty and emotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, my wish with this CD is for the viol to contemplate, from its own particular perspective, repertoires distant in space and time, with no artistic or technical self-limitation, exploiting its resources to the full. From the music of 17th-century Spain to the most classical French viol repertoire, by way of Bach and Rameau and reaching out towards popular and present-day music, the model of viol best suited to each repertoire gives us the key to the thousand sonorities hidden in our instrument. A more open attitude may perhaps allow us to break down some barrier and take one more step forward with it, in the hope that the viol continues to grow and does not fall once again into another long and gloomy oblivion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fahmi Alqhai<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A PIACERE
Music for viola da gamba<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fahmi Alqhai, viola da gamba<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arc\u00e1ngel, flamenco singer
Pablo Mart\u00edn Caminero, double bass & violone<\/em>
Rami Alqhai, viola da gamba & violotto<\/em>
Johanna Rose and Ignacio del Valle, violas da gamba
Juan Carlos Rivera, theorbo
Pedro Estevan and Agust\u00edn Diassera, percussion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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01. Mariz\u00e1palos (Gaspar Sanz)
02. Fandango (Santiago de Murcia)
03. Passacalle (Gaspar Sanz)
04. Canarios (Gaspar Sanz)
05. El canto de los p\u00e1jaros (Catalan traditional)
06. Les pleurs (Mr. de Sainte-Colombe)
07. Allemande (Mr. de Sainte-Colombe)
08. Sarabande. Le pleureux (Mr. de Sainte-Colombe)
09. Les sauvages
10. Les voix humaines (Marin Marais)
11. La guitare (Marin Marais)
12. Always with me, always with you (Joe Satriani)
13. Andante from the Sonata BWV 1003 (Johann Sebastian Bach)

All pieces arranged for viola da gamba by Fahmi Alqhai<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n