Album

The Donne Barocche, or Baroque Women, featured here are not singers or operatic characters, but composers, and the album, originally released on the Opus 111 label in 2001 and rescued for reissue by Naïve broke new ground when it first appeared. All of the music comes from the last third of the 17th century and the first decade of the 18th. The names of composer/singer Barbara Strozzi and French keyboardist Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre were known to enthusiasts of the history of women's music and were beginning to receive mainstream performances, but the other four composers represented were new to all but scholars, and the big news was a program of music as varied in concept and affect as any by the male composers of the period. The Sonata duodecima in D minor for violin and continuo of Isabella Leonarda, an Ursuline nun from Novara, is a wild rush of chromaticism and ornament with affinities to the German fantastic style, and the Lamento della Vergine of Antonia Bembo, also a member of a women's religious community, is a fine example of the dramatic pious style that was one of the forerunners of Bach's cantata idiom. Everything benefits from passionate singing by soprano Roberta Invernizzi and from lively accompaniment by Bizzarrie Armoniche, an offshoot of the pioneering Italian group Il Giardino Armonico. There's not a conventional phrase on the disc, from either the composers or the performers. An essential for a Baroque shelf, and even a good place to start with music by women in general.

© James Manheim, Rovi

CD 1
Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre Composer Violin Sonata No.2 in D Work 6:56 Riccardo Minasi Violin, Bizzarrie Armoniche Ensemble
1	1.Presto	1:25			$0.99
2	2.Adagio	1:26			$0.99
3	3.Presto	1:35			$0.99
4	4.Presto	2:30			$0.99
Barbara Strozzi Composer Serenata con violini ('Hor che Apollo è a Teti in seno'), Op.8 Work Roberta Invernizzi Soprano, Bizzarrie Armoniche Ensemble
5	Serenata con violini ('Hor che Apollo è a Teti in seno'), Op.8	13:15			$2.49
Barbara Strozzi Composer Miei pensieri, arietta for soprano and continuo (from Ariettas, Op.6) Work Roberta Invernizzi Soprano, Bizzarrie Armoniche Ensemble
6	Miei pensieri, arietta for soprano and continuo (from Ariettas, Op.6)	4:13			$0.99
Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre Composer Prélude for harpsichord in D- (from Les Pièces de Clavessin) Work Bizzarrie Armoniche Ensemble
7	Prélude for harpsichord in D- (from Les Pièces de Clavessin)	2:18			$0.99
Antonia Bembo Composer Lamento della Vergine, cantata for soprano and continuo (from Produzioni Armoniche MS Paris 1697-1701) Work Roberta Invernizzi Soprano, Bizzarrie Armoniche Ensemble
8	Lamento della Vergine, cantata for soprano and continuo (from Produzioni Armoniche MS Paris 1697-1701)	9:36			$1.49
Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre Composer Pièces de Clavecin qui peuvent se joüer sur le Viollon Work Bizzarrie Armoniche Ensemble
9	Allemande. La Flamande e double	5:31			$0.99
Rosa Giacinta Badalla Composer Non plagente, for soprano and continuo (from Mottetti a voce sola, Venezia 1684) Work Roberta Invernizzi Soprano, Bizzarrie Armoniche Ensemble
10	Non plagente, for soprano and continuo (from Mottetti a voce sola, Venezia 1684)	6:37			$0.99
Isabella Leonarda Composer Sonata Duodecima, for violin and ensemble Work 10:33 Riccardo Minasi Violin, Bizzarrie Armoniche Ensemble
11	1.Adagio	1:51			$0.99
12	2.Allegro e presto	1:16			$0.99
13	3.Adagio. Vivace e largo	4:49			$0.99
14	4.Aria Allegro	1:28			$0.99
15	5.Gigue. Veloce	1:09			$0.99
Bianca Maria Meda Composer Cari Musici, motetto for soprano, 2 violins and continuo (Motteti a uno, due, tre, quattro voci, Bologna 1691) Work Roberta Invernizzi Soprano, Bizzarrie Armoniche Ensemble
16	Cari Musici, motetto for soprano, 2 violins and continuo (Motteti a uno, due, tre, quattro voci, Bologna 1691)	9:41			$1.49