Sonatas 1-4, 6, 7, 9
Luciano Contini (archlute), (Glossa 2014)
Giovanni Zamboni is probably amongst "your favorite lutenist's favorite lutenists," and yet he remains something of a mysterious figure three centuries after his birth. Tragically little ink has been spilled on his biography (Grove, for example, offers only a pithy paragraph, through no fault of their own). Although his 9th lute sonata has been recorded by major names in the lute world (see: Toyohiko Satoh's Italian Lute Music, Vol. 2 and Jakob Lindberg's Amodei / Zamboni / Storace), his work has also received little academic attention. To present, then, the regrettably bare facts at our disposal: Zamboni, possibly a jeweler, lived sometime between the late 17th and early 18th century. His Sonate d'intavolatura di leuto (Op. 1), one of the last collections of Italian music written in lute tablature, was published in 1718, representing the largest collection of his extant works.
It's easy to view Zamboni's sonate as an anticipation of the galant style—it is certainly music of rhetoric, and, although Zamboni wrote for a thirteen-course arcileuto, its texture is light enough to warrant transcriptions for guitar and renaissance (seven-course) lute. In veritably Roman fashion, Corellian influences are an indispensable ingredient of Zamboni's music, but it would be incorrect to assume he wrote solely in a "Roman" or "Italian" style: his penchant for French rhythm and sobriety is just as important (in, for example, the ninth sonata's overture-esque allemande); and, at any rate, a clinical list of influences can only serve to undersell the grace and ingenuity of these works, just as one would not reduce the music of Leonardo Leo to regole di partimento.
Luciano Contini's disc contains the lion's share of Zamboni's sonate. It's difficult to exaggerate the intelligence of these recordings. They achieve seemingly impossible clarity (just listen to the third sonata's fugue!), and demonstrate critical engagement with matters large and small of each work, such that every dynamic, ornament, and phrase appears intentional and very well-reasoned. Although the unceasing gaiety with which Contini breezes through Zamboni's virtuosic offerings is worth the price of admission in itself, his commitment to the composer's craft is perhaps most evident in the sheer charm of this record's lyrical movements. The prelude and allemande of Sonata 1, the sarabande of Sonata 7, and the allemande of Sonata 6—all of these serve as compelling arguments for Affektenlehre in Contini's hands!
In every respect, then, Contini brings to the table precisely what Zamboni's music calls for, ensuring this collection is—and will certainly remain for quite some time—the definitive reference recording of Zamboni's sonate.