Luzzaschi: O primavera

Bruce Dickey is one of a handful of musicians worldwide who have dedicated themselves to reviving the cornetto. For this collection, he has chosen a wide range of pieces; instrumental canzonas by composers of the Neapolitan school (Tartaglino, Mayone and Trabaci), six canzonas by the Venetian Guami, four sets of divisions on motets and madrigals and three solo motets with basso continuo.

The myth of springtime is a brilliant metaphor for love, an ever-inspiring subject for pœts and musicians. This recording assembles a tapestry of tiny pœtic and musical gems from sixteenth- to eighteenth-century Italy, England, and France. Youth, beauty, and love are their inspiration. Some are well-known, some rescued from dusty library volumes, and others remain part of our folk culture and are reborn in this collection in new forms. Perhaps music, as the most temporal of the arts, is the most appropriate medium to express the transience of the subject at hand

Some of the most florid and virtuosic music for voices ever written, commissioned by Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara in 1601 for his private trio of the most eminent sopranos of the day to perform to a select few in the inner sanctum of the ducal palace. Renowned early music singers Musica Secreta now reveal the beauties of this music and give masterly performances of this exciting secret music of the 'Ladies of Ferrara'