Strozzi: Virtuosissima Sirena album review – Laura Catrani enchants with truly revolutionary music from Venice | music

forBarbara Strozzi was a true revolutionary of the 17th century. She grew up among Venetian intellectuals, perhaps the natural daughter of the poet and librettist Giulio Strozzi, and participated in debates from the age of fifteen. None of her contemporaries had ever recorded 120 published works for solo voice. Despite remaining single, she has been able to support four children with the income she earns from her music alone. The quality of its production is matched only by Monteverde.

Virtuosissima Sirena consists of a suite of cantatas and arias interspersed with effervescent trio sonatas by Legrenzi and Castello. The Accademia dell’Annunciata suite of two violins, cello, theorbo, double harpsichord and harpsichord lends the music a shimmering sweetness that is perhaps more luxurious than the composer expected but is nonetheless enchanting.

The musical language is full of madrigal influences: dissonant intervals to express pain; It falls on the measure to convey sighs and tears. The understated soprano of Laura Catrani is sentimental in L’Amante Segreto (The Secret Lover), a bittersweet lament on drooping bass, and lively in Zé di Grande (Habits of the Great), a Strozzi setting of one of her father’s high-society poetic tendencies. Riccardo Doni’s direction allows this music to breathe and thus speak.