La riscoperta dell’oratorio Mosè liberatore del popolo ebreo (1685), per cinque voci, tromba e archi celebra il trecentocinquantesimo anniversario della nascita di Giacomo Antonio Perti, eclettico musicista bolognese nato nel 1661 e morto nel 1756 a 95 anni dopo oltre settant’anni di attività musicale.

Musician and teacher, Francesco Durante was so known at his time, that his name was given to a compositional school (that of the "durantisti"). He composed mostly vocal music, especially sacred, of which his keyboard works make up a limited part, where virtuosity is extremely common; elements like the very rapid scales, the arpeggios or the crossing of the hands are also widely found in other contemporaries from Naples, but his writing preserves characteristic features which are absolutely personal.

Domenico Gabrielli, unrelated to the more famous Gabrielis (spelled with one "l"), was one of a group of composers specializing in oratorio in the city of Bologna in the second half of the seventeenth century. Though the oratorio tradition was nurtured by the church of Santa Maria di Galliera in that city, some of the music was apparently semi-secular; the work recorded here, S. Sigismondo re di Borgogna (St. Sigismund, King of Burgundy), though its protagonist was eventually canonized, has a blood-and-guts story involving armed conflict, decapitation, and the burial of an entire family in a well. Sigismund was a historical figure, who died in 524, and his story might have been (or might still be) suited to operatic treatment.

Les Nations is an ensemble specializing in the rediscovery of the oratorio musical form, from the Renaissance to the Baroque. In this production ""Les Nations is faced with an almost unknown author that, once again, proves he deserves a place amongst the greats. The few surviving works by Giovanni Battista Bassani, whose life remains mostly mysterious, testimony the incredible range and greatness of his musical writing. No exception is the Giona, the realization of which marked the debut of Bassani's oratorio at the court of Francesco II d'Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio, great lover of music, whose appointment had to be a great opportunity for the composer's artistic career, aware he could count both on an experienced and passionate client and almost unlimited resources.