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Brilliant Classics

Call for the Wailing Women, Laments and Lamentations in Ital

$12.99

Details

Composer
Giovanni Matteo Asola, Alessandro Della Ciaia, Carlo Donato Cossoni, Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Ago
Artist
Cappella Artemisia, Candace Smith
Format
CD
Label
Brilliant Classics
Released
Mar 20, 2026
Catalog #
BRI97603
UPC
5063758976039

About

World-premiere recordings of motets by a host of unknown names from the early Italian Baroque: the latest result of performing scholarship by a group with a notable track record of success in this repertoire. International critics have praised the 'expert performances' (Gramophone) of Cappella Artemisia, and the intrepid adventurousness of the ensemble's founder, Candace Smith, in turning up one buried treasure after another, most of them to be found in the music libraries of Italian convents. The latest fruits of her research have turned up lamentations by Carlo Donato Cossoni, Alessandro Della Ciaia, Giovanni Matteo Asola, Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Agostino Guerrieri, Lucrezia Orsina Vizzana, Giovanni Battista Strata, Maria Francesca Nascimbeni, Alessandro Della Ciaia - and the best known name among them, Anonymous. All the pieces here and probably all the composers will be unfamiliar even to those well versed in Baroque-era highways and byways, such as Brilliant Classics has catalogue so comprehensively over the last quarter-century. As Candace Smith observes in her insightful booklet essay, the practice of lamenting - voicing grief - has been associated with women since time immemorial. This album presents a sequence of laments and lamentations from 16th- and 17th-century Italy as they might have been sung in that most exclusively female environment: the convent. Several of these laments belong to the long tradition of Passiontide compositions to which composers from Gesualdo to Macmillan have contributed, in setting texts from the Book of Lamentations which belong to the liturgy of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Still other pieces are sacred madrigals setting more contemporary texts, such as O trafitto mio Dio: the work of the 16-year-old Maria Francesca Nascimbeni, before she took the veil. Musical life was often remarkably rich behind the convent walls. One traveller to Genoa 1592 encountered a young nun who could play the organ, the violin and the lira da gamba, as well as singing beautifully and resembling 'more an angel than a woman'. Thus this album presents a tiny sample of that culture: one which should entrance listeners on account both of the beauty of the unknown music, as well as the hidden stories behind it's composition.

Tracklist 10 tracks

  1. 1 Motetti, Op. 1: Morior Misera 07:51
    Track
    1
    Title
    Motetti, Op. 1: Morior Misera
    Duration
    07:51
    Composer
    Carlo Donato Cossoni
    Ensemble
    Cappella Artemisia
    Conductor
    Candace Smith
  2. 2 Lamentationi sagre e motetti, Op. 2: Feria Quinta: Lamentatione Prima 09:03
    Track
    2
    Title
    Lamentationi sagre e motetti, Op. 2: Feria Quinta: Lamentatione Prima
    Duration
    09:03
    Composer
    Alessandro Della Ciaia
    Ensemble
    Cappella Artemisia
    Conductor
    Candace Smith
  3. 3 Lamentationes improperia et aliae sacrae laudes: Lamentationes in Coena Domini 04:42
    Track
    3
    Title
    Lamentationes improperia et aliae sacrae laudes: Lamentationes in Coena Domini
    Duration
    04:42
    Composer
    Giammateo Asola
    Ensemble
    Cappella Artemisia
    Conductor
    Candace Smith
  4. 4 Concerti sacri, Op. 2: Quid, miseri, quid faciamus? 07:34
    Track
    4
    Title
    Concerti sacri, Op. 2: Quid, miseri, quid faciamus?
    Duration
    07:34
    Composer
    Chiara Margarita Cozzolani
    Ensemble
    Cappella Artemisia
    Conductor
    Candace Smith
  5. 5 Sonate di violino a 1, 2, 3, 4 per chiesa and anco aggionta per camera, Op. 1: Sonata a 1, "Malincolica" 04:21
    Track
    5
    Title
    Sonate di violino a 1, 2, 3, 4 per chiesa and anco aggionta per camera, Op. 1: Sonata a 1, "Malincolica"
    Duration
    04:21
    Composer
    Agostino Guerrieri
    Ensemble
    Cappella Artemisia
    Conductor
    Candace Smith
  6. 6 Componimenti musicali de motetti concertati: Usquequo Oblivisceris Me in Finem? 02:59
    Track
    6
    Title
    Componimenti musicali de motetti concertati: Usquequo Oblivisceris Me in Finem?
    Duration
    02:59
    Composer
    Lucrezia Orsina Vizzana
    Ensemble
    Cappella Artemisia
    Conductor
    Candace Smith
  7. 7 Arie di musica: Deh, Che Fai, Anima Mia 04:02
    Track
    7
    Title
    Arie di musica: Deh, Che Fai, Anima Mia
    Duration
    04:02
    Composer
    Giovanni Battista Strata
    Ensemble
    Cappella Artemisia
    Conductor
    Candace Smith
  8. 8 Canzoni e Madrigali morali, e spirituali: O Trafitto Mio Dio 10:21
    Track
    8
    Title
    Canzoni e Madrigali morali, e spirituali: O Trafitto Mio Dio
    Duration
    10:21
    Composer
    Stefano Nascimbeni
    Ensemble
    Cappella Artemisia
    Conductor
    Candace Smith
  9. 9 La Monaca Musica [MO G239, Biblioteca Estense, Modena] 09:33
    Track
    9
    Title
    La Monaca Musica [MO G239, Biblioteca Estense, Modena]
    Duration
    09:33
    Composer
    Anonymous
    Ensemble
    Cappella Artemisia
    Conductor
    Candace Smith
  10. 10 Sacri modulatus, Op. 3: Lamentatio Virginis in Depositione Filij De Cruce 15:58
    Track
    10
    Title
    Sacri modulatus, Op. 3: Lamentatio Virginis in Depositione Filij De Cruce
    Duration
    15:58
    Composer
    Azzolino Bernardino Della Ciaia
    Ensemble
    Cappella Artemisia
    Conductor
    Candace Smith