Matteo Gemolo - traversiere (copy of J.W. Oberlender XVIII sec. made by Martin Wenner)

Henriëtte Wirth - harpsichord

Enrico Pigozzi - sound engineer

Jessica Harrison - ceramic sculpture, Edinburgh 2014

Adagio - Franz Benda - Sonata in E minor for traverso and continuo

Commissioned from Joachim Brackx, by Europa Ritrovata
(World premiere recording)

EUROPA RITROVATA
Laurance Servaes - soprano
Matteo Gemolo - traverso
Claire-Sarah Fouché - violone

Enrico Pigozzi - sound and editing

J. Brackx - Imagination Does Not Exist, for voice, traverso and violone

Matteo Gemolo - traverso (Palanca, M. Wenner)
Enrico Pigozzi - sound and editing

Hans-Martin Linde (1930), German flautist (playing both recorder and traverso) and composer, wrote some of the best known contemporary masterpieces for recorder: Trio (1960) for recorder, flute (modern) and harpsichord is inspired by the Trio Sonata in C by Johann Joachim Quantz; Music for a bird (1968), recorder solo, originally thought to be for a Japanese mime actor, requires some extended techniques such as harmonics, flatterzunge, glissandos, finger vibrato, voice and many alternatives trills; Amarilli, mia bella (1970) takes its flair from the variations of the namesake aria by Caccini, written by Johann Jacob van Eyck; Märchen (1973) for one recorder player (soprano, alto, tenor and bass recorder).
In 1988 Linde composed his first work for traverso, Anspielungen, dedicated to the German flautist Konrad Hüntler (1947). The double meaning of the German root word “Anspielen”, when referred to a musical instrument can be translated into English as either “try out” or “allude to”. While the first meaning refers to the use of extended techniques on the traverso, the second stands for the dense conglomerate of music quotations taken from the standard traverso literature and reworked and modified throughout the different movements of Anspielungen, including Sonata in e minor BWV 1034, Fifth Brandenburg Concert BWV 1050 and Partita for solo flute BWV 1013 by Johann Sebastian Bach, Sonata in a minor for solo flute H562 by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and the Flute Concerto in G Major K313 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

H. M. Linde - Anspielungen for traverso solo (1988)

Audio Samples for IMPAR: 'Extended techniques on the traverso: The case of the glissando and the flattement'

excerpt from 'Un peu timbre’ (La Fenêtre ouverte) by J. Fontyn – Europa Ritrovata, Matteo Gemolo tr.

excerpt from Legende by M. Arita – Matteo Gemolo, traverso

Audio Samples for IMPAR: 'Extended techniques on the traverso: The case of the flutter-tongue and microtones' (part 2)

excerpt from ‘Opintie/Study drone’ by Jukka Tiensuu – Europa Ritrovata - Matteo Gemolo, traverso

excerpt from Snared Harmony by Rodney Sharman

excerpt from Legende  by Masahiro Arita – Matteo Gemolo, traverso

excerpt from Traverso poema by Vasco Negreiros – Matteo Gemolo, traverso

excerpt from Anspielungen by Hans-Martin Linde – Matteo Gemolo, traverso

This work was commissioned from Wim Henderickx by Wim Van Hasselt in 2011 for his CD 'On the Road'. Wim Henderickx wrote several versions of this work for SAXOPHONE, TENOR RECORDER, BASS FLUTE and in 2019 for BAROQUE FLUTE (traverso).

Matteo Gemolo - traverso
Wim Henderickx - electronics

Enrico Pigozzi - sound design (traverso's part) 

Picture: detail from “Illustrated Legends of the Kitano Tenjin Shrine,” a late-13th-century set of nine scrolls from Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, Kyoto

Wim Henderickx - On the Road for traverso and electronics

Jazzy free-impro on a theme by G.F.Handel
Matteo Gemolo - traverso
Enrico Pigozzi - guitar

(Re)Haendel

Matteo Gemolo is an Italian flautist and a Music PhD. Both as a performer and as a researcher, he is on the forefront in researching, commissioning and performing new music for the one-keyed flute.

​He regularly plays with leading ensembles and orchestras such as Vox Luminis (Lionel Meunier), Les Muffatti (Peter van Heyghen), Le Concert d'Anvers (Bart van Reyn), Silete Venti! (Simone Toni), Apotheosis Ensemble (Korneel Bernolet), BachPlus (Bart Naessens), Ad Mosam (Huub Ehlen), Terra Nova Collective (Vlad Weverbergh), B.O.X. (Pieter Theuns), Ensemble A (Hans Cammaert), Transports publics (Thomas Baeté), Stagione Armonica (Sergio Balestracci), Oficina Musicum (Riccardo Favero), and performs on the main stages and festivals such as: Concertgebouw Brugge, Bozar in Brussels, De Singel in Antwerp, Festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht, Festival de Sablé, Festival des Abbeyes en Lorraine, Musica Sacra Maastricht, Ravenna Festival, Grandezze e Meraviglie in Modena, Venetian Centre for Baroque Music in Venice, Spazio & Musica at Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Festival Accademia Bizantina, Coudenberg in Brussels, Teatro dell'Arte in Milan, Teatro Della Pergola in Florence, Ars in Cathedrali in Brussels, Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris, and many others.
He recorded for Warner Classics & Erato, and as a soloist for Arcana (Outhere Music): 'La Solitude à Deux' (2018) and 'Affect is no Crime) 2019. These recordings have been praised by the critics as a "a recording of pure beauty, from which emanates a rare poetry. Solo pieces invite to introspection, reflection, and to a peace that soothes the human soul. The duet pieces are, on the other hand, invigorating dialogues, like the clear and fresh water of a torrent. We welcome the very careful stylistic research of our two musicians (...). The sound is full and warm, the ornaments cleverly thought, and the vibrato serves the musical discourse, in all circumstances" (Laurent Graulus - Musiq3) and particularly the traverso of Matteo Gemolo has been appreciated for his "spontaneity of musical discourse (...) and astonishing breathing technique" (Ferruccio Nuzzo), "grace and subtlety of phrasing (...) and round and warm sound" (Albéric Lagier), his "surprising beautiful sound quality: a soft and round timbre, such as to recreate that precise tone contrast and all those nuances desired by Telemann." (Claudio Bolzan - MUSICA) and his tone described as "pure and perfect, full of color and expression. His recordings have been broadcasted on several radios such as Klara (BE), Musiq3 (BE), France Musique (FR) and Rai Radio Classica (IT). Since 2013, he has been working at the Conservatory of Music in Venice where he gives yearly lectures and seminaries of Historical Performance Practice on the traverso. He is also a columnist for the main Italian Flute Quarterly FaLaUt where he writes articles about the contemporary new repertoire for the one-key flute. He writes also for the American Peer Reviewed The Flutist Quarterly and IMPAR, International Journal for Artistic Research in Music.
Since 2018, he has given lectures on the use of the traverso in the contemporary repertoire: Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester UK (HARP 2018: First International Conference on Artistic Research in Performance); the University of Aveiro (FLUTE: Hands on Research 2018); the Orpheus Instituut in Gent (Music, Humans & Machines 2019); Cardiff Univeristy (Composition Seminars 2019).
Next to a traditional repertoire, he has consecrated himself to contemporary music in order to create a new repertoire for period instruments, working with Belgian ensemble Europa Ritrovata, whereof he is the artistic director. In 2017, he collaborated with Icelandic composer and producer Valgeir Sigurðsson. In 2019, he made his debut at Venice La Biennale with "If I had words to tell you, I wouldn't be here now" created by the drag artist VIctoria Sin and co-produced by Delfina Foundation and Arts Council England.

Matteo Gemolo

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