Stradella: Cantatas: Ferma il corso e torna al lido; Fuor della Stigia sponda; Sinfonia No. 12; Sinfonia No. 22

Alessandro Stradella’s colourful life and eventual murder have since furnished writers with material for novels and stageworks. But he was very highly regarded as a composer during his short life, and made important contributions to several musical forms with operas, instrumental sinfonie and cantatas. This programme features five seldom performed chamber cantatas and two of his sinfonie or sonatas. Soprano Christine Brandes has a light, pleasing voice, and an athletic technique which enables her to circumnavigate most of Stradella’s often demanding vocal writing.

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4

Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:11 pm

COMPOSERS: Stradella
LABELS: Harmonia Mundi
WORKS: Cantatas: Ferma il corso e torna al lido; Fuor della Stigia sponda; Sinfonia No. 12; Sinfonia No. 22
PERFORMER: Christine Brandes (soprano), Paul O’Dette (archlute, guitar), Mary Springfels (viola da gamba), Ingrid Matthews (violin), Barbara Weiss (harpsichord, organ)
CATALOGUE NO: HMU 907192

Alessandro Stradella’s colourful life and eventual murder have since furnished writers with material for novels and stageworks. But he was very highly regarded as a composer during his short life, and made important contributions to several musical forms with operas, instrumental sinfonie and cantatas. This programme features five seldom performed chamber cantatas and two of his sinfonie or sonatas. Soprano Christine Brandes has a light, pleasing voice, and an athletic technique which enables her to circumnavigate most of Stradella’s often demanding vocal writing. But she is stretched to her limits, perhaps even a shade beyond, in the virtuoso, fiendishly difficult ‘Ferma il corso e torna al lido’. This is the most substantial and dramatic piece on the disc, offering the listener an insight into the emotion of princess Arianna, abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos. Here, above all, Stradella demonstrates his innovative gifts and his sturdy powers of characterisation. The ‘Sinfonie’ are well contrasted, the second and more engaging of the two being a set of variations on a spaciously conceived ‘ground’. In some respects the programme is a challenging one. Stradella does not always wear his heart on his sleeve and, as Charles Burney once remarked of CPE Bach’s music, ‘a little habit is necessary for the enjoyment of it’. A habit, nevertheless, well worth acquiring. Nicholas Anderson

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