Less prized than Florence or Venice by tourists, Bologna is however one of the Italian cities most rich in art and history. The seat of the oldest university in the Western World, its musical standing is largely unmatched and its exquisite cuisine is exported all over the world. Bologna has born many artists including Adriano Banchieri, Domenico Gabrielli, Farinelli, Ottorino Respighi, Ruggero Raimondi and the lesser known organist and musicologist Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini (1929-2017). In addition to his considerable work on the Italian harpsichord and teachings at the universities of Bologna, Padua and Freiburg (Switzerland), he was the happy owner of an extraordinary collection of period instruments which are visible today at the museum of the San Colombano church in his birth town, Bologna. It is here and under the authority of professor Tagliavini that the present album was recorded in 2013. The idea for this project came to him during the exposition of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring in Bologna in 2014. While examining the virginal figure on another canvas by the Flemish painter, The Music Lesson, Tagliavini conceived this musical programme played on two superb harpsichords from his collection.
The pieces chosen are entirely inspired by the relations between Italy and Holland at the time, with composers from the two provinces: Frescobaldi, Sweelinck and many others are presented in a fascinating and particularly intuitive game of mirrors. The Flemish and Italian musicians, Japan Schröder on violin, Liuwe Tamminga on diverse keyboard instruments, Peter Van Heyghen on the recorder and Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavin on harpsichord bring to life this hypothetical and moving meeting of Vermeer and Bologna. © François Hudry/Qobuz