Il ponte di Leonardo -Da Vinci's Bridge, Constantinople, Kiya Tabassian, Marco Beasley- full concert

2024 JUNO Award Winner for Best Classical Album of the Year!

Concert recorded in Montreal, on March 19 2022, as part of Constantinople 20th Season.

Constantinople en concert / Our next concerts: https://linktr.ee/constantinople

Marco Beasley, voice
Fabio Accurso, lute
Didem Bașar, kanun
Marco Ferrari, recorders, nay & ciaramella
Patrick Graham, percussions
Tanya LaPerrière, baroque violin & viola d’amore
Stefano Rocco, archlute & baroque guitar
Kiya Tabassian, setar, voice & director

00:00:28 - KUH-PAREH
Agha Mo’men (16th century) - Cantemir Collection n.163

00:06:14 - NON VAL AQUA AL MIO GRAN FOCO
Bartolomeo Tromboncino (1470-1535) - Libro II, Franciscus Bossinensis, Fossombrone, 1511

00:12:30 - STARALLA BEN CUSSÌ
Anonyme (16th century) - Libro II, Franciscus Bossinensis, Fossombrone, 1511

00:15:08 - PARVÂZ
Kiya Tabassian (1976) - Poem of Amir Khusrow (1253-1325)

00:21:32 - PAN DE MIGLIO CALDO
Anonyme (16th century) - Libro VI, Petrucci, Venetië, 1505

00:25:58 - SALTARELLO E PIVA
Ambrogio Dalza (?-1508) - Intabolatura... libro II, Petrucci, Venetië, 1508

00:34:52 - SERA NE LO COR MIO
Anonyme (15th century) - MS Sevilla, Colombina 5-l-43

00:38:15 - TU DORMI / ROUZ-O-SHAB
Bartolomeo Tromboncino, Vers additionels de Marco Beasley (1957), source: Libro I, F Bossinensis, 1509 / K.Tabassian (1976) - Poem of Rumi (1207-1273)

00:44:37 - SO STATO NEL INFERNO
Anonyme (15th century) Poem of Feo Belcari - MS Sevilla, Colombina 5-l-43

00:48:16 - Solo Kanun, Didem Bașar

00:50:23 - SEMAI PIRE MEY FOROUSH
Anonyme (16th century) - Poem of Hafiz (1320-1390), source: Macmua-i Saz u Suz

00:56:53 - CAVALCA SINISBALDO
Anonyme (16th century) - MS Sevilla, Colombina 5-l-43

01:00:56 - HIJAZ SEMAI
Anonyme Persan (16th century) - Macmua-i Saz u Suz

01:06:45 - NOI CHE SEMPER NAVEGHEMMU
Anonyme de Genova (15th century) – Text edited by Gian Piero Alloisio (1956)

01:10:29 - GOLESTAN
Anonyme Persan (16th century) - Cantemir Collection

01:21:17 - (Biz) COMO SENCZA LA VITA - Tarantella Napolitain

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Building musical bridges between traditions is at the very core of Constantinople, the ensemble we founded over twenty years ago. This is the mission we are dedicated to pursuing, the principle that guides us: to explore music from today and from times long past, from here and from faraway places.

The bridge imagined by Leonardo da Vinci was the spark that ignited this musical program. The music of the two cultural spheres he sought to connect with this impressive work of architecture enters into dialogue here, creating a unique and expressive soundscape that brings the bridge he dreamed about to life.

Together with my colleague and dear friend Marco Beasley we have made a careful selection of compositions – inspiring, musical, poetic – from the time of Leonardo da Vinci. The foundation of our bridge is made up of pieces and poems taken from manuscripts and printed works of the era: from Italian frottole from the 15th and 16th century to Genovese songs, from Ottoman instrumental compositions to Persian poems by Hafez, Rumi and Amir Khosrow. We then navigated between these works, defining their stylistic boundaries in order to find the passageways between them and to create a true encounter and dialogue which goes beyond a mere juxtaposition of repertoire.

And so the bridge imagined and drawn over 500 years ago by the genius Leonardo da Vinci has now been redrawn and erected in music and song through the human and artistic encounter that took place between the eight musicians who contributed to this project. It is our hope that this bridge will be travelled and crossed many times by you, who listen to this concert, and by the inhabitants of both shores, in all senses.

© Kiya Tabassian

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Avec ce concert, Constantinople et Marco Beasley recréent en musique le pont dessiné par Leonardo da Vinci en 1502. Ce pont devait être le pont le plus long et audacieux de l’époque, en réunissant l’Europe et l’Asie au-dessus du Bosphore. Il n’a cependant jamais vu le jour et les plans sont restés dans les archives de l’artiste. Cinq siècles plus tard, Tabassian et Beasley ré-imaginent ce pont, avec des œuvres musicales tirées de manuscrits des XVIe et XVIIe siècles reposant dans les bibliothèques.