Isabella Leonarda - Sonate a 1, 2, 3 e 4 istromenti Opera Decima Sesta

Isabella Leonarda was one of a small number of women musicians of the seventeenth century, and the only one to have left us such a vast amount of music. Her life certainly differed from that of her more or less famous male “colleagues”, for she was a nun composer with a great sense of devotion to the Virgin Mary. Music was for Leonarda an expression of her deep faith, a reflection of the parallel between divine and human order, contemplated and experienced through her own creative abilities. Her more than two hundred compositions include her instrumental works the twelve sonatas for 1, 2, 3 and 4 instruments from her op. XVI. The sonata as a form took hold in the centers of northern Italy, and for 34th of a century, or approximately until 1650, it was cultivated almost exclusively in that area. It was nearly always published in groups of 6 or 12, and collections would conclude with a final sonata, often in the form of variations (such as Corelli’s Follia, op. V, n. 12) or another single composition. Leonarda herself followed this practice her op. XVI indeed contains 12 sonatas, eleven of which are for 2 violins, violone and basso continuo, while the twelfth piece is for solo violin and basso continuo.

CAPPELLA STRUMENTALE DEL DUOMO DI NOVARA
violini: Servio Bona, Igor Del Vecchio
violoncello: Claudia Poz
organo positivo: Alberto Sala