Soprano Ulrike Hofbauer and Ensemble La Ninfea capture the beauty and passion of these works by the still grossly underrated Giovanni Battista Bononcini (1670-1747) and his younger brother Antonio Maria Bononcini (1677-1726).

Danish soprano Ditte Andersen and Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg were heard to stunning effect in Spedidam's splendid 2006 recording of Gluck's Aristeo and Bauci e Filemone with the ensemble Les Talens Lyriques under Christophe Rousset. Here they tackle another obscure corner of the Baroque: cantatas and operatic arias discovered in the libraries of the palaces at Meinungen and Sonderhausen, many of which were previously unknown. The Italian composers represented include a few who are well known, but they are predominantly obscure – Antonio Caldara, Giovanni Battista Bononcini, as well as his brother Antonio, Francesco Gasparini, Giovanni Battista Alveri, Giuseppe Maria Andrea di Orlandini, Attilio Ariosti, Giovanni Porta, and Tommaso Bernardo Gaffi.

Bononcini’s La decollazione was first performed during Lent of 1709 in the chapel of Emperor Joseph I in Vienna. The rather sober scoring of La decollazione for strings and continuo might be explained by the Lenten presentation, but the vocal and instrumental demands of the piece fully exploited the brilliance of the Viennese musicians, and their skill in opera. At the same time, Bononcini integrated his skills in counterpoint, normally associated with sacred music, throughout the work so that it presents as both worldly and spiritual.

Simone Kermes, crowned “The Queen of Baroque” by Opera News, presents her eagerly awaited follow-up album to her multi-award-winning album Lava, which was Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and Disc of the Month in BBC Music Magazine. Colori d'Amore (The Colours Of Love) is a selection of virtuosic baroque arias bound together by the theme of love, almost all of which are world premiere recordings, having been unjustly neglected for centuries.

This CD contains the Stabat Mater by Antonio Maria Bononcini (1677‐1726), one of the earliest and most famous works in this genre, on a par with the Stabat Mater by Pergolesi. In this work, in the tragic key of C minor, Bononcini reaches a noble purity of expression of the deep human feelings of the lamenting Mother. The polyphony is strong but never overwhelming, the melodic lines have a powerful simplicity and serenity, breathing a devotional piety and sincerity throughout the whole work.

This disc is a tour de force, a world premiere recording of stunning music splendidly performed. The unjustly obscure Antonio Maria Bononcini was appointed late in life to be maestro di cappella in Modena, a post which allowed him to pour his store of invention into two grand sacred works, a Mass and a Stabat Mater. Conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini engages deeply with the composer’s imagination, opening up his dense counterpoint and delicately binding together his vocal and obbligato lines. The musical rhetoric of the Concerto Italiano is spellbinding, particularly when band and singers heighten gestures to surge powerfully towards a passage’s final cadence. However heated their delivery becomes – and the Stabat Mater does sizzle – the artists never rush. This is particularly crucial for bringing out Bononcini’s modulations and textures, which, because they shift rapidly, need space to breathe.

Giovanni Battista Bononcini (1670-1747) and his younger brother, Antonio Maria (1677-1726) were considered by their contemporaries to be among the most outstanding cello virtuosi of their time; today, however, they are best known not only as composers of vocal music but also as two of the greatest representatives of the galant style. It is to their music, often unpublished, that Marco Ceccato and his Accademia introduce us here.

Philippe Jaroussky brings his musical and dramatic powers to a programme of music from Italian oratorios of the baroque era, including five arias in world premiere recordings. La vanità del mondo, takes it's name from an oratorio by Pietro Torri and among the other composers are Händel, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Hasse, Fago and Caldara. "I think composers of this period often give of their best when setting the great stories of the Old Testament," says Jaroussky. "And if oratorio stories are more static than opera, they allow for deeper reflection on the place of mankind in the universe. I think that resonates with particular intensity in 2020, a year of pandemic."

Giovanni went on to become a big star in London writing Italian operas but he and his younger brother came from Bologna, known for its famous cellist-composers Vitali, Jacchini and Domenico Gabrieli. These mostly early pieces for cello or gamba demonstrate their aptitude for these instruments while the aria Impar was one of the standard audition pieces of every aspiring soprano during the early 1700s.

This anthology of devotional music from 18th-century Venice and Naples offers an interesting and varied programme. Best known is Pergolesi’s Stabat mater, but the settings by Domenico Scarlatti and Bononcini stand well in comparison. The motets by Lotti, Caldara and Alessandro Scarlatti are real discoveries; Norrington’s performances of the latter are particularly fine. Guest’s Pergolesi suffers from a focus of sound which makes the interpretation seem somewhat generalised. However, all these performances give pleasure, while the music is melodically fresh and rhythmically vital.

The oratorio La decollazione di S. Giovanni Battista by Antonio Maria Bononcini is a worthy representative of the little-known tradition of oratorios in the Italian language composed at the Hapsburg court, a tradition which was quite widespread between the second half of the seventeenth and the first three decades of the eighteenth centuries. This genre, now considered to be an appendix of the opera, played instead a significant role in the religious-musical events of the imperial court, where Italian culture in general and the language itself represented more than mere aesthetic models.

Antonio Maria Bononcini (1677 - 1726) is the younger and lesser-known brother of Giovanni Bononcini (1670 - 1747). He was one of a number of Italian composers who were active at the imperial court in Vienna, and introduced the newest trends in Italian music to the Austrian capital. His brother also did belong to this group of composers, as well as Ziani and Ariosti. The chamber cantata was one of the genres these composers paid attention to as listening to cantatas was part of the entertainment at the court.

With I Viaggi di Faustina Glossa is launching a new collection focusing on famous Italian singers from the 17th and 18th centuries, whose travels bear witness to the intense level of artistic activity then taking place in the major cities of Europe. Faustina Bordoni, the brilliant diva with whom we begin this series pursued her career mainly in Naples (the principal focus of this CD) and Venice, but also in cities such as Bologna, Parma, Dresden and London. These were cities hosting – with great success – operas by Johann Adolph Hasse (Bordoni’s husband), Nicola Popora, Leonardo Vinci, Francesco Mancini and Domenico Sarro; most of these composers are represented on this first selection of wonderful arias.

An invitation to the intimate setting of an Austrian or Italian Court at the beginning of the XVIIIth century.
Contrasting voices and instruments performing as a solo or together will compete with charm and impetuosity to conjure up the vivacity and the beauty of the Italian music at the time. In the early years of the 18th century the mandolin was an integral part of the Baroque musical scene. As such, it is found in a hundred or so operas.