EARLY MUSIC: A concert dedicated to the great woman composers in the Italian late Renaissance, Early Baroque era.

Listen to the program:

Concerto Soave:
Maria Cristina Kiehr, soprano
Sylvie Moquet, viola da gamba
Angelique Mauillon, harp
Jean-Marc Aymes, harpsichord, organ, leader
 

Part I

Il Concerto da Chiesa

BARBARA STROZZI 1619-1677
Salve Regina
(from: Sacri musicali affetti, libro I op.5, Venice, 1655)

CATERINA ASSANDRA ca.1590-after 1618
O quam suavis
(from: Motetti à due & tre voci op.2, Milan, 1609)

FRANCESCO MARIA BASSANI ?
Toccata per B quadro

CATERINA ASSANDRA
Veni sancte Spiritus
(from: Motetti...)
 

Part II

ASCANIO MAYONE ca.1565-1627
Toccata Terza
(from: Primo libro di diversi capricci..., Naples, 1603)

ISABELLA LEONARDA 1620-1704
Dulcis amor
(from: Vespro a cappella della Beata Vergine..., Bologna, 1678)

Il Concerto da Camera

ANONYMUS
Toccata arpeggiata
(from: Chigi-manuscript, Biblioteca Vaticana, Rome)

FRANCESCA CACCINI 1587-after 1641
Lasciatemi qui solo

Part III

FRANCESCA CACCINI
Fresche aurette vezzosette
(from: Il primo libro delle musiche, Florence, 1618...)

GIROLAMO FRESCOBALDI 1583-1643
Corrente Prima
(from: Toccate e partite d’intavolatura..., libro primo, Rome, 1615)

FRANCESCA CACCINI
Non so se quel sorriso
(from: Il primo libro delle musiche, Florence, 1618)

BARBARA STROZZI
Amante segreto
(from: Ariette a voce sola op.6, Venice, 1657)

Summary
The narrow group of female composers to gain fame in the 17th century remains a uniquely Italian phenomenon, coinciding with the rise of monody promoted in the Florentine camerata. One of the most famous of the women, Francesca Caccini, was the daughter of singer, teacher and composer Giulio Caccini. She enjoyed the refined entourage of the Medici family, where she could flourish as a composer and a singer. Her music is of no lesser quality then her father’s, as speaks from her exquisite use of ornamentation and her mastery of dissonants and complex rhythms. In her ‘Lasciatemi qui solo’, she end every section with a heart wrenching ‘lasciatemi morire’, quite an exceptional emotional moment for the early Seicento. Francesca Caccini’s music is probably closed to that heard during the Concerti della Dame from which this concert borrowed its name.
Caterina Assandra had to make do without the stimulating competition of the vibrant court life, being a nun in the convent of St. Agathe in Lomello. From her sole collection of two and three part motets we could infer that she was influenced by the Milanese liturgical tradition, the Ambrosian rite. In her music, she strikes a particularly serene balance between the monodic style and the Palestrinian heritage. The two pieces you will hear tonight are written for a soprano and a bass voice; the bass part will be played by an instrument, as was quite usual since ‘lady basses’ were extremely rare in the convents.
Isabella Leonarda’s music breathes the same athmosphere of serenity. When she was 16 years old, she entered the Ursuline order [ehm, Ursuline?] where she worked on a relatively abundant musical oeuvre. Except a very modern collection of violin sonatas, she only left sacred music.
Distinctly less sacred are the works of Barbara Strozzi, without doubt the first among her colleagues. Given that she worked in Venice, a certain resemblance to the music of Cavalli and Monteverdi was to be expected. The majority of her works are secular except for one collection of sacred music, dedicated to Anne of Austria. Strozzi’s music always displays tremendous beauty, whether you listen to the Salve Regina with is advanced chromatism, of to her ‘Amante segreto’ with a spellbinding passacaglia.
Throughout all times, women have been a composer’s greatest inspiration, be it a holy woman, or a more approachable one. The instrumental music was chosen for the programme as a continuation of the vocal pieces, drawing a portrait of the woman in the Seicento, a turbulent epoch of artistic and social change that laid the basis for a truly ‘new music’.