Caccini, G: Amor ch'attendi

La Barcha d'Amore is an eclectic, contrasting selection of some of the most beautiful vocal and instrumental music inspired by mythology and 17th-century European love poetry. Music of time and memory, performed by Montserrat Figueras and Jordi Savall, together with Ton Koopman, Hopkinson Smith,Andrew Lawrence-King and other members of the ensemble Hespèrion XX (which in 2001 became Hespèrion XXI) and the orchestra Le Concert Des Nations, have selected recordings that they made from 1976 to 1996 for the labels Emi Electrola, Dhm,Astrée and Auvidis, and from 1998 to 2008 for Aliavox. This anthology, contains vocal pieces directly related to the theme of love, such as the innovative Airs for the recitar cantando of Giulio Caccini's Le Nuove Musiche, the evocative tonos humanos by Spanish Baroque composers Sebastián Durón, Juan del Vado and Juan Hidalgo, Monteverdi's sublime Lamento della Ninfa, the mysterious folia Yo soy la locura by Henri du Bailly, not forgetting the touching Elizabethan lullaby and the tender melody Une jeune fillette, both by anonymous authors, but equally remarkable for their great beauty and depth of emotion. The various instrumental pieces, with such evocative titles as the Gaillarde "La Barcha del mio Amore" by Giacomo de Gorzanis, Samuel Scheidt's Pavane and his "Courant dolorosa", the Elizabethan "Desperada" and the highly popular improvisation piece, "Greensleeves", as well as the great Jean-Baptiste Lully's Rondeau from Le Mariage forcé and the Chaconne from L'Amour Médecin, provide the necessary complement to the vocal pieces, resulting in a great variety of sources and contrasting characters. The Barcha d'Amore is the personal testimony of Jordi Savall's unwavering and rigorous commitment to the performance of music from the Middle Ages to the age of Classicism using 'historically informed' instruments and performance techniques, which emerged in the 1970s.Those years marked the beginning of a great revival in the performance of pre-Romantic music, a continuing revival which offers the possibility of retrieving an important cultural legacy.

"I have great pleasure in providing a few introductory words for this most engaging programme, as it recalls much delight I enjoyed when first I began to work with this area of repertoire about thirty years ago . . . This CD explores this particular area of virtuosity in a very engaging survey of highly ornamented yet deeply expressive music. From the suave complaint of Sigismondo D'India, Che farai Meliseo where the singer needs the agility of a nimble mountain goat, to [the virtuoso singer], Giovani Puliaschi's subterranean exploration, Locar sopra gl'abissi that resonates like some dark cavern, by way of the sublime 'crooning' of Caccini's Muove si dolce, the listener is in no doubt that in this repertoire at least, the empty bragging of Brancaccio is left far behind - and the comic bass buffoonery lies elsewhere and in the future.The quiet virtuosity of poetry is sublime, opening out into moments of profound declamation." Anthony Rooley

Giulio Caccini and the early Italian Baroque singer-songwriters have fascinated and challenged Joel Frederiksen for the past 20 years. For the most part they are the inspiration and subject of this CD. Men like Caccini, but also Giovanni Kapsberger and Giovanni Puliaschi, were singer-player-composers who wrote in a revolutionary way for the bass voice and accompanied themselves on the lute. Joel has attempted to recreate this performance ideal by accompanying himself on the archlute (which combines attributes of the lute and harp) and immersing himself in repertoire which flowered between approximately 1580 and 1620. After moving to Munich, Joel Frederiksen established Ensemble Phoenix Munich in 2003 for the recording of his first solo CD Orpheus, I am, a CD of Renaissance and early Baroque music, from England, Italy and France.The ensemble is heir to his previous group, L'antica musica New York, 1989-2001. It presents a wide range of programmes from the Renaissance and Baroque, and from Early America c.1800-1900.

Roberta Invernizzi is one of the most sought-after sopranos in the field of Early Music.