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Barbara STROZZI (1619-1677)
Serenata, con violini, Op. 8 (1664) [1:48]
Lagrime mie, Op. 7 (1659) [8:39]
Finche tu spiri, Op. 7 (1659) [10:17]
Bel desio che mi tormenti, Op. 6 (1657) [6:18]
Il Lamento: Sul Rodano severo, Op. 2 (1651) [12:19]
Costume de grandi: Godere e lasciare, Op.2 (1651) [4:29]
L脱raclito Amoroso: Udite Udite amanti, Op. 2 (1651) [6:32]
Mentite (instrumental version), Op. 6 (1657) [4:19]
Apresso ai molli argenti, Op. 7 (1659) [11:56]
Biagio MARINI (c.1597-1665)
Sonata per due violoni, Op. 22 (1655) [4:35]
Sinfonia sesto tuono, Op. 22 (1655) [2:04]
Ensemble Po�sis: Christiana Presutti (voice); Martin Bauer (viola da gamba); Ang駘ique Mauillon (harp); Hager Spaeter-Hanana (cello), Odile Edouard, Benjamin Ch駭ier (violins); Marion Fourquier (harp, director)
rec. 4-6 May, 2006, Auditorium Ansermet, Radio Suisse Romande, Geneva. DDD
ニON AECD 0643 [71:16]
 
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Barbara Strozzi is a fascinating figure, musically and biographically alike. As a composer she wrote works of great interest, leaving aside any special interest which attaches to her as one of those pretty rare creatures, a female composer in the Italian Renaissance/Baroque era. Biographically, one feels that she ought to have attracted the attention of biographers, or even novelists � her near contemporary, the painter Artemisia Gentilleschi (1593-1652/3) has, after all, been the subject of at least three fictionalised lives, by Anna Banti (Artemisia, 1965), Alexandra Lapierre (Artemisia: un duel pour l'immortalit�, 1998) and Susan Vreeland (The Passion of Artemisia, 2002). The outer events of Strozzi痴 life are less sensational than those of Gentilleschi痴, but fascinating nonetheless.
 
She was the illegitimate daughter of Giulio Strozzi (1583-1652), offshoot of a distinguished Florentine family and well established in Venice as a poet; Monteverdi set some of his sonnets, and he collaborated with Monteverdi, Merula and Cavalli, amongst others. Barbara Strozzi痴 mother was one of Giulio Strozzi痴 household servants. Her daughter seems always to have been well-treated by her father; she was brought up mixing amongst the cultural elite of Venice. Her musical training was obviously extensive; she gained a reputation as a singer � when Nicol� Fontei dedicated two publications to her in the 1630s he described her as 砺irtuosissimi cantatrice�; her performances as a singer, however, seem to have been restricted to private occasions, such as concerts at her father痴 home or for select gatherings of the Accademia degli Unisoni which he established. She studied composition with no less a master than Cavalli and her first volume of compositions was published in 1644. Others followed, the sequence coming to a close with the Op. 8 Arie of 1664. In total she published over a hundred and twenty pieces, most of them secular in nature; her Sacri musicali affetti of 1655 is the chief exception.
 
Some accounts of her � largely based on one contemporary satire � have depicted her as a kind of courtesan but, even though she did have three children by an older married friend of her father - Giovanni Paolo Vidman � there is little evidence to justify this assumption. There is much fascinating information in two articles by Beth L. Gilson in Musical Quarterly, Vol. 81, 1997, pp.311-335 and Vol.83, 1999, pp.134-141. These supersede the entry in the New Grove. Candace A. Magner has contributed a valuable piece, 腺arbara Strozzi: A Documentary Perspective� to The Journal of Singing, Vol.58, 2002.
 
As a composer one of the most striking things about Barbara Strozzi is the care and attention she gives to the texts of her many vocal compositions. The fact that as a performer she was confined to the domestic sphere � rather than performing in church or theatre � perhaps made her particularly sensitive to the possibilities of an intimate relationship between words and music. No doubt the influence of her poet-father counted for something here, too.
 
It is in her vocal works that Strozzi is heard at her best and most individual. This present CD gives us the chance to hear her vocal writing in several different moods. 詮inche tu spiri, spera� is an anguished setting of words by Rottillio Lepidi, expressive of the pains of the unhappy lover. 腺el desio che mi tormenti� is an elegant love song, rather lighter in tone; 舛ostume di grandi� sets words by her father, moral advice about the lies and flatteries of lovers and of the 組reat�. Giovanni Pietro Monesi provides the words for 羨presso ai molli argenti�, full of unexpected chromaticism and richly expressive. Much of Strozzi痴 best work is to be found in her laments, such as this last. 選l Lamento: Sul Rodano severo� is a powerful piece, occasioned by the execution of Henri d脱ffiat, Marquis de Cinq-Mars and favourite of Louis XIII of France, for his part in a plot against Cardinal Richelieu. Strozzi痴 composition, sometimes referred to as the 銑amento del Marchese Cinq-Mars�, is a powerful and memorable work, nowhere more so than in its remarkable conclusion, with the rapid reiteration of a single chord in the continuo accompaniment. In 銑agrime mie�, which sets words by Pietro Dolfino, we are back with an unhappy lover, but the conventionality of Dolfino痴 text is not reproduced in Strozzi痴 striking setting, full of unexpected melodic and harmonic twists and turns and genuinely moving.
 
Strozzi痴 music is gradually getting more and more attention and some of these works have already been recorded more than once. Others, I think, are getting their first recording here. The performances are assured and intelligent, the recorded sound rich and clear. Cristiana Presutti has a full, even heavy, voice which does full justice to the emotional substance of much of Strozzi痴 writing; there are one or two places where a little more agility, a little more variety of tone, wouldn稚 have gone amiss, but there is a great deal to enjoy here. The instrumental accompaniment perhaps lacks the sheer zing that we have now come to expect from the very best Italian ensembles in music of this period but, again, this is a minor reservation in the face of such richly enjoyable music-making. Not a bad place to start if you don稚 know Strozzi痴 work; another CD to add to your collection if you are already an admirer of her work.
 
Glyn Pursglove

 

 


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