Aradia Ensemble

Purcell - Theatre Music Volume 1

Written mostly during the last five years of his life, Purcell’s Theatre Music is a rich and varied collection of some of the composer’s finest melodic inspirations. They include solemn overtures, cheerful and sad songs, as well as delightful dances, either incorporated into the action of the play or performed as preludes and interludes. This first volume of the series includes many gems such as the erotic musical diversion in Amphitryon which takes the form of a Pastoral Dialogue betwixt Thyrsis and Iris, the amorous shepherd begging for, and finally being granted, his heart’s desire; and the series of dances in The Gordian Knot Unty’d, the most delightful of which are the Rondeau, Minuett and the final Chacone.

Vivaldi: Griselda, RV718

Vivaldi’s Griselda, one of more than twenty operas, is based on a story retold in Boccaccio’s Il decamerone about the testing of Griselda’s patience and virtue by her royal husband through a series of cruel trials. The sense of drama that permeates many of Vivaldi’s more programmatic works such as the Four Seasons, is very naturally carried over into his operas, especially with the use of so-called ‘simile’ arias, in which an emotional state is compared with various natural phenomena. Several very fine examples can be heard in Griselda, including Costanza’s extraordinary Agitata da due venti in Act II. The text compares love and duty with two contrary winds, and setting is correspondingly wild, with fierce fioriture and wide leaps

Handel: Rinaldo

Vivaldi - Sacred Music Volume 2

Giovanni Battista Sammartini - Six Symphonies (1730-1750)

Boyce: Symphonies Nos. 1-8, Op. 2

Vivaldi - Sacred Music Volume 1

Dietrich Buxtehude - Sacred Cantatas