Every good concert should not only be an exhilarating experience but also an educational one. This was absolutely the case with Francesco Tomei’s Viola da Gamba recital given in the delightfully venerable ambience of the San Francesco convent library at Borgo di Mozzano.

Tomei pointed out that a viola da gamba is NOT the precursor of the violoncello, which belongs to a completely different family of stringed instruments including the violin and the viola. The viola da gamba (gamba is Italian for foot) belongs to a class of instruments which date back rather earlier and which includes the viola da braccio (braccio=arm) and which in the UK were particularly popular in the seventeenth century with such luminaries as William Lawes, praised in Milton’s sonnet.

Francesco Tomei opened his recital with a suite of pieces by the mysterious Sieur de Saint-Colombe (ca. 1640–1700) whose opus was only recently  discovered through a  manuscript found in Tournus, a place I remember well from earlier times, when travelling by car with my parents to Italy, because of its jewel of a Romanesque church

Le Sieur de Saint Colombe – even his first name is unknown -published none of his large collection of pieces from Viola da Gamba and would only play in intimate surroundings. Among his achievements was to add a seventh lower string to the instruments, adding considerable gravitas to the gamba’s beautifully melancholic tone.

The Sieur’s reclusive existence was dealt a resounding blow by Pascal Quignard in 1991 when he published his novel based on Colombe’s life: Tous les matins du monde (‘All the Mornings of the World’), subsequently made into a film directed by Alain Corneau and starring  Gérard Depardieu .

Other pieces played included a Telemann suite, again recently unearthed in the depths of a German Schloss.

The Scotsman Tobias Hume, in addition to being a musician, was a Scottish army captain with the Swedish and Russian armies. He was also a bit of a joker and this frontispiece to a collection of his works advertises a piece for one Viola da Gamba to be played by two persons, one a female sitting on the male player’s lap.

Here it is, executed by an amorous couple on top of a snow-speckled mountain peak:

The highly enjoyable recital concluded with items from that doyen of the Viola da Gamba, Marin Marais (1656– 15 1728) le Sieur de Saint Colombe’s most distinguished student.

I doubt that the Viola da Gamba has been heard in this part of the world since its heyday in the seventeenth century and it was a real privilege to hear its richly autumnal tones echo in the chambers of the convent of Saint Francis at Borgo a Mozzano.

If you were unfortunate enough to miss out on this concert there will be others in the series, all under the enterprising artistic direction of guitarist Giacomo Brunini. They all take place in some of the most exquisite ambiences of our lovely valley including, on first December, at Fornoli:

Be sure to put these dates in your diary!