Giovanni Bononcini composed the four-part oratorio La Conversione di Maddalena for the Habsburg emperor Leopold I in 1701. The musician from Modena, at the time at the apex of his European fame, had at his disposal the best forces of the Imperial Chapel: four singers (two sopranos, a contralto and a bass) of top rate and an instrumental ensemble, limited to strings but adequately consistent to articulate a concert dialectic with tutti-concertino, including soloist pages for the violin, the cello and the viola da gamba.

Composer and cellist Domenico Gabrielli, was born in Bologna on 15 April 1659. He only lived to be 31 and he is a composer probably only familiar to cellists, or rather Baroque cellists. His seven Ricercari for cello solo are indeed the first predecessors of Bach’s cello Suites, and his two cello sonatas and his Canon for two cellos are among the earliest examples of their genre. Much less well-known is the fact that Gabrielli was also a celebrated opera and oratorio composer and published several trio sonatas and (posthumously) a volume of secular cantatas for voice and basso continuo. The present release is completed by some works by Bartolomeo Monari (1662-1707). Emanuela Galli's ravishing voice leads us through these lesser known Baroque compositions revealing the beauty of that music.

Luigi Rossi (ca. 1597 - 20 February 1653) was an Italian Baroque composer. Rossi was born in Torremaggiore, a small town near Foggia, in the ancient kingdom of Naples and at an early age he went to Naples. There he studied music with the Franco-Flemish composer Jean de Macque who was organist of the Santa Casa dell’Annunziata and maestro di cappella to the Spanish viceroy. Rossi later entered the service of the Caetanis, dukes of Traetta.

In the autumn of last year Fabio Bonizzoni and La Risonanza embarked on a journey taking a fresh look – musicologically as well as musically – at the chamber cantatas to Italian texts and with instrumental accompaniment composed by Georg Frideric Handel during his stay in Italy. Where the first release on Glossa focused on works associated with Cardinal Pamphili in Rome, this new recording contains pieces – including the dramatic cantata Armida abbandonata and Handel’s ‘own’ Hunt Cantata – originating in the establishment of the Marquis Ruspoli and written for sopranos such asMargherita Durastante and Vittoria Tarquini.

Nicola Porpora’s Op 1 set of Italian chamber cantatas receive a new and striking reading directed by Stefano Aresi, a leading interpreter of the Late Baroque composer. Neapolitan-born Porpora brought his nuove musiche with him in the early 1730s when he had set out for London (with his pupil Farinelli) to take advantage of the perceived wavering of Handel’s operatic fame there. Porpora, espying an opportunity there just as Handel himself had done before, quickly ingratiated himself with the nobility in Britain and his 12 cantatas, though probably written in Naples, were published under the patronage of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales of Great Britain.

Antonio Florio et son équipe de la Cappella de'Turchini nous ont habitués à de passionnantes découvertes dans le répertoire de leur ville de Naples, au passé musical si riche et pourtant délaissé par la plupart des musiciens.

One of the causes of the ‘crisis’ in the music industry is the fact that too many works are recorded over and over again. There are innumerable CDs with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons or Pergolesi’s Stabat mater. But once in a while someone has the imagination to perform and record a completely unknown piece by a composer hardly anybody has ever heard about. Antonio Florio is one of those creative minds who concentrates on little-known repertoire. In the last decade or so he has explored the musical past of his city, Naples. This time he presents a composition by an Italian who, for the largest part of his life, worked in Vienna. Badia was born in Verona and went to Innsbruck at a young age.

Starting with the `Passione', this is a meditation on Christ's Passion consisting mainly of a `Dialogo' between the Virgin Mary (soprano Emanuela Galli) and St John (Giuseppe Naviglio, bass), with contributions from a pair of angels and others. The music is vivid and demonstrative, with lovely vocal passages and some wonderful duetting, all very finely sung. The lively accompaniment from period instruments is superb, and it's all directed with spirit and inspiration by Antonio Florio.

If Naples, under the reforming wing of Caravaggio, experienced a golden age in the pictorial arts in the 17th century, the same holds true for musical composition. Antonio Florio unveils for us today the musical treasures of this dazzing era nourished by the expressive opulence of the predecessors of A. Scarlatti. A roster of remarkable soloists gives life and flesh to one of the scores exemplifying Neapolitan devotion. The casting dazzles through its presence and its incantatory illumination: Gloria Banditelli is Rosalia, thrilling, sensual, passionate. La Colomba follows on the style of Provenzale's operas. It solidifies the social ascension of the musician to the court of the viceroy, since the work was premiered at the Palace in 1670 by the figliuoli of the Conservatory of Santa Maria di Loreto, of which he was choir director. But this bountiful drama fits into the cycle of other sacred projects by Provenzale: one can attribute to him a "life" of Teresa d'Avila, one of San Gennaro, another of Santa Rosa.

Pour tous ceux qui ne connaissaient pas la musique sacrée de Jommelli, ce CD apportera la preuve éclatante du talent et de la versatilité d’un compositeur né et mort près de Naples, mais dont l’essentiel de la carrière se déroula à Stuttgart, Vienne, Rome ainsi que dans la plupart des grandes villes italiennes.

Eleven imaginative and melodically striking vocal pieces from a collection published in 1660, towards the end of the relatively short life of one of the most famous female composers, Barbara Strozzi. Ranging in length from two minutes to 14 and with a variety of moods to match, they are performed with feeling (though not a lot of colour) by Emanuela Galli with jangling support from Ensemble Galilei’s three guitars, four theorbos and (only one) organ. The haunting Lagrime mie is alone worth the price of the disc.

Nowadays, little introduction on record is needed for the dramatic output of Jean-Baptiste Lully: his style has become unquestionably associated with French music of the 17th century. But long before he became the all-conquering composer of tragédies en musique at the court of Louis XIV, Giovanni Battista Lulli, during his early years in Paris and encouraged by the also Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin, helped to spread the music from his native country into the French court. Lully’s own initial compositions - forging his unmistakable style - focused on music for ballets de cour and for these his instrumental entrées were combined with vocal sections in Italian such as arias and Le Florentin’s early treatment of recitative. Not just transalpine composers were welcomed in Paris but singers too.

As part of their comprehensive survey of the music of Claudio Monteverdi, Claudio Cavina and La Venexiana delivered an exceptional version of L’Orfeo, a reading which had been honed by their trailblazing interpretations of the composer’s madrigals. This highly-esteemed recording of the favola in musica – critics applauded and fêted it in many different countries – subsequently dropped out of the catalogue and Glossa is very pleased to have the opportunity to return it there as part of this year’s 450th anniversary commemorations of the composer’s birth.

This delightful intermezzo per musica in two acts - recounting the old story of a naïve young nobleman and of a sly girl who, after a series of squabbles and pranks, following the best of traditions, declare eternal love to each other and decide to get married - has pleased audiences ever since its first performance at the San Samuele theatre in Venice in 1750, and is here recorded for the first time. At that time the intermezzo was already a well-defined and self-standing music form, detached from opera seria, with which, originally, it had been combined. It was also, however, in a declining phase and nearing its disappearance. And yet L'uccellatrice by Niccolò Jommelli enjoyed many performances (Leipzig, 1751; Bologna, Ravenna and Vicenza, 1753; Parma, 1756; Florence, 1760; Pescia, 1772) and was even translated into French, with the score adapted and enlarged.

A few years after the assassination of Stradella, Pierre Bourdelot and Pierre Bonnet-Bourdelot included a story of the episode in their Histoire de la Musique in 1715, and consequently the ‘legend of Stradella’ was born. According to the legend, Stradella had disappeared with the lover of a Venetian noble, who in response hired a band of assassins to pursue the lovers from city to city. In the booklet of this CD – with its recording from Enrico Gatti, his Ensemble Aurora and Emanuela Galli in the title role – are contained the latest results of Carolyn Gianturco’s investigation into the life and works of Stradella, including some completely new information. La Susanna, an erotic oratorio, was written by Stradella in 1681 on commission from Francesco II, Duke of Modena, who was very fond of the genre.