"La conversione di Maddalena" with Il Fuoco Eterno

In June 2024, my new group Il Fuoco Eterno realised its first bigger project: the oratorio “Il trionfo della grazia, overo la conversione di Maddalena” by Antonio Maria Bononcini (1677-1726). A.M. Bononcini was one of the Italian composers who worked at the Viennese court in the beginning of the 18th century, an interesting and fruitful musical period, which is also the main focus of the ensemble. We chose this piece because of its interesting and rich instrumentation: alongside the string orchestra there is a trio consisting of treble chalumeau, traverso, and basson de chalumeau (the use of the chalumeau, especially the basson, is very rare but typical for Vienna at this time), which appears only three times in the entire piece. Two viola da gambas make their entrance in one duo aria, and one aria in unison (of which there are only a handful of examples). The different groups of instruments meet just once in a short but lovely “Sinfonia vaga e soave”, one of the most touching moments of the oratorio. There is an aria for two solo violins and two cellos, and some pieces for strings in various styles, some of which seem extremely advanced for this time. However, a great part of the work is still written like in earlier operas and oratorios, where the arias are only accompanied by the continuo, followed by a short instrumental ritornello.
For this project we were very lucky to be able to put together an outstanding group of musicians, the three vocal roles Maddalena, Penitenza and Gioventù being performed by Jenny Högström (soprano), Jakob Pilgram (tenor) and Alex Potter (alto).
The piece, despite being completely unknown, was very well received by the audience, and after two successful concerts in Mariastein and in Muri we hope to perform it again in other places. A video with excerpts from the concert in Muri will be published in the near future.
Photos of a rehearsal in Mariastein by Andrew Burn.