About the Group

The recorder ensemble Sforzinda was founded in 2000 in Barcelona, and is named after the ideal city that Antonio di Pietro Averlino (a.k.a. Filarete) projected in his Trattato di architettura (ca. 1465). The ensemble consists of five core members of Joan Izquierdo (musical director), David Aijón, Andreu Brunat, Joan Escoda and Tiam Goudarzi, and is often joined by as many as three more players to tackle larger textures. Their outstanding set of Renaissance recorders was made by Bob Marvin after originals housed at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and play at a'=460 Hz. Halfway between the expressivity of the singing voice and the Renaissance church organ, Sforzinda specializes in the period circa 1540-1620 and always performs from the original notation.

Sforzinda made its debut at the Fundación Carlos de Amberes (Madrid) in 2001, and since then has performed throughout Spain, France and Greece. The ensemble’s CD recording of Orlando di Lasso’s Il primo libro di mottetti a 5 ed a 6 voci for the Ars Harmonica label was released in 2005.

Our Philosophy

Inspired by a lecture on ethos and Renaissance music by Bob Marvin at Barcelona’s Museu de la música — at which some of Sforzinda’s founding members actually met for the first time — the ensemble’s main focus from the beginning has been the performance of 16th-century vocal polyphony, with or without voices. As a group we believe that the purely instrumental rendition of vocal music has not yet been explored to the degree it deserves. Contemporary taste, perhaps owing to an already quite long instrumental virtuoso tradition, seems to lean more easily towards flashy instrumental performance styles, full of passagi and all kinds of ornamentation wizardry, than to the dignity and deceiving simplicity of purely vocal lines. Today, Renaissance consorts include little vocal polyphony in their programs, usually featuring either some famously difficult diminutions written back then for a particular piece, or an attempt at a reconstruction of such a practice. We beg to differ in our approach, aiming for an understanding of a piece’s character and true nature before ornamenting it away like crazy. In that sense, when playing vocal music we do, after all, have texts that will hopefully point us in the right direction.

Working from the original notation is another largely important aspect of our approach to performance. Aside from the obvious practical benefits of playing from parts as opposed to scores (now you just try playing through a long eight-voiced piece from a score in modern transcription!), we feel that performing from the original notation yields truer, more interesting results due to the strict demands it makes on our awareness as performers. It is also the best document we have to approach Renaissance music, as it reveals all the rhythmic richness specific to this repertoire that modern notation, with its barlines and ties, can only crudely convey.

And last but not least, you should know that we present all of our recordings – commercial or otherwise – completely live, free of editing of any kind.

Ideal City

Sforzinda is the name of Filarete's ideal city.
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